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Digitized by tine Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/earthgirdledOOtalm 



The Earth Girdled 




The World as Seen To- Day 



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va: IfcA^f^^^- '^- DeWitt Talmage, D. D. 



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Embracing 




SCENES AND EXPERIENCES 
AMONG SEMI-CIVILIZED AS 
WELL AS CULTURED PEO- 
PLES OF THE WORLD. 



Dr. Talmage's description of 
his journey to 

THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

THE SAMOAN GROUP 

NEW ZEALAND 

AUSTRALIA. INDIA 

CEYLON, EGYPT 

BIBLICAL ISLES OF THE 
MEDITERRANEAN 

RUSSIA, ENGLAND 

SCOTLAND, IRELAND 



MAGNIFICENTLY ILLUSTRATED WITH 40O PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEWS 

And Eiglit Plates in the new Photographic Color Process, representing 
every feature of Dr. Talmage's Tour. 




Sold by Subscription Only. 




F> 



'^!r«i%^'<'- People's Publishing Co. 

PHILAD'A. PA. ST. LOUIS, MO. 



2169 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1896, 

by H. S. SMITH, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, 



THE ENGRAVINGS in this volume were 
made from original photograpiis, and 
are specially protected by Copyright, 
and notice is hereby given that any person or 
persons guilty of reproducing, or infringing 
the Copyright in any way, will be dealt with 
according to law. 



PHIl^DELPHIA 




Author's Pieface, 



PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. 

The popularity of Dr. Talmage — His pastorate in Brooklyn — The tabernacles which he has built — The 
immense amount of work he does — His decision to visit foreign lands — His friends determine to 
celebrate the twenty-fifth year of his Brooklyn pastorate — A wonderful silver jubilee — Description of 
the ceremonies— An international commemoration of the event — Distinguished participants from other 
countries — Speeches by the Doctor — Telegrams and cablegrams of felicitation — Destruction by fire of 
the great Talmage Tabernacle — A dreadful conflagration — An amazing record of fiery visitations — An 
interview with Dr. Talmage, 35~54 

CHAPTER I. 

TRANSCONTINENTAL. 

Departure of Dr. Talmage upon his tour of the world — Retrospection and war memories — A visit to 
Mammoth Cave — Across America to the wonderlands of Yosemite — The Yellowstone Park — Marvels 
of the Grand Canon - Some beautiful descriptions, 53-67 

CHAPTER II. 

FOLLOWING THE SUN. 

An accident — Mount of the Holy Cross — Bethels of Nature -Some queer names that approach irreverence 
— At the California Fair — Opening oration — Campaign of the wilderness — An incident in a sleeping 
car — An old lady's mistake 68-73 

CHAPTER III. 

PARADISE OF THE PACIFIC. 

All aboard for the South Sea — A grizzled captain of the Pacific — A stay on the Sandwich Islands — Some 
important facts — The question of annexation — Hawaiian progress - Arrival at Honolulu — Cannibalism 
— Official courtesies — A sermon in the church at Honolulu -A veritable land of flowers — Wonders and 
beauties of Nature — The world's greatest volcano — A convention of fiery mountains — Coronation of 
Kilauea, 74-79 

CHAPTER IV. 

PRESIDENT AND QUEEN. 

A visit to Queen Lilliokoulani — Interviewing dusk)' royalty — Reception by President Dole— Establishing 
a new government — Both sides of Hawaiian affairs — A most instructive catechism and interlocution — 
The Royalist view — The Republican side of the case — A rational conclusion S0-R5 



vi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 
AN ISLAND OF LEPERS. page. 

The -world's heroes and heroines— Joseph Damien, the noble priest — A tribute to his godliness and self- 
sacrifice— Molokoi, the pest island— Regime among the lepers— Cheerful, though doomed— Story of 
William Ragsdale, leper— Leprosy diagnosed— Progress of the disease — Parting of the lepers from 
their friends— Moral lepers, 86-94 

CHAPTER VI. 
BATTLE AND SHIPWRECK. 

A cyclone on the Pacific — Vision of the Samoan Islands — Among the warring factions of Samoa — Queen 
of the islands— Hell of the Pacific— Trade, gin and kava— How the latter is made — Malietoa, King of 
Samoa — Labors of the missionaries — Tattooing and ocean chromatics— Martyrdom of fashion — 
Inhabitants of the oceans — The voice of many waters— An apostrophe to the sea — A swoop of 
tornado 95-I03 

CHAPTER VII. 
UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS. 

Four stellar evangelists — A tribute to the missionaries — Some pathetic stories of self-denial and suffering — 

Customs of the Tahitans — Significance of the Southern Cross 104-106 

CHAPTER VIII. 
ANTIPODEAN EXPERIENCES. 

Balaklava on a dining-table— Reception at Auckland, New Zealand — Dashed with a bucket of water — 
Early voyagers — Churches and female suffrage in New Zealand — A new interpretation of the .story of 
Adam and Eve — Reminiscences of war and peace in New Zealand — Intercontinental commerce — 
Charge of the Light Brigade, explanation of the blunder, 107-112 

CHAPTER IX. 
THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THINGS. 

Dr. Talmage's lecture at the Auckland Opera House — Perfections of nature — Harmonies that smother all 
discords — The blessings of amiability — The fault-finder — Two ways to read the same letter — The deaf 
man's enthusiasm — An angel in a hospital — How to distinguish a gentleman or lady — Many apt 
illustrations — Tittle-tattles— A bear in society — Senator Gruff and Speaker Kindly — Around the 
hearthstone — The " eddicated" legislator — An interesting portrait gallery — The gloomy- Sunday' — 
Habits diagnosed — Board-fence literature — The religion of wholesome exercise — Illustrative anecdotes 
and metaphor 1 13-134 

CHAPTER X. 
MURDER AS A PASTIME. 

The aborigines of New- Zealand — Massacres and cannibalism — Murder as a fine art — Experiences of early 

missionaries— Horrible customs — An opportunity for lecturers, 135-13S 

CHAPTER XL 
WOMEN IN NEW ZEALAND. 

Women's rights ascendant— A great scarcity of women— The mountains of New Zealand — Wonderful 
natural terraces— Incomparable beauties wrought by eruptions — A burning mountain — A might}' 
cataclysm— The animal life of New Zealand— The giant Moa bird— An aviary of wondrous curiosity 
— A land of surprises 139-144 

CHAPTER XII. 
OCEAN GATE OF AUSTRALIA. 

A rough sea experience— The glorious prospect of Sidney— A remarkable harbor— In the streets of an 

Australian city — Sheep raising and agriculture - A post-office with chimes 145-150 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIII. 
GOLD, GOLD, GOLD. 



A descent into the golden caverns of Australia — Some interesting facts about mining — Fabulous dividends 

— Observations on the world's money — Reckless speculations — Dr. Talmage's interests iu Australia, . 151-157 

CHAPTER XIV. 

A BAKED MISSIONARY. 

Among the Fiji Islanders — Harrowing experiences of a missionary — Strange customs of the island savages 
— Banqueting cannibals — Stor3- of tlie Haggard brothers — Dramatic close of a fraternal tragedy — The 
hot blast of a scandal — Savagery in civilization — Gridirons of persecution 15S-163 

CHAPTER XV. 

SHEEP BEFORE THE SHEARERS. 

Introduction of sheep into Australia — Some astonishing statistics — Sheep shearing by machinery — 
Tangled up with an adder — Capital and labor — How strikes are avoided — The lamb of sacrifice — The 
shepherds of Australia, 164-170 

CHAPTER XVI. 

CHAINS AND EXILE. 

A historj- of Botany Bay — Deportation of criminals — Horrors of prison life — Man's inhumanity to man — A 
blasted parentage — The evolution of honor — From crime to eminent respectability — Good citizens and 
noble manhood in Australia — The flower fields and rich vegetation of the island continent — A stroll 
on the beach of Botany Bay, 171-176 

CHAPTER XVII. 

ZOOLOGICAL WONDERS. 

One nugget of gold worth $50,000 — Australian cities — Metropolitan rivalries — Land of the kangaroo — 
Marvelous contrarieties — Birds of wondrous habits — The laughing jackass — A pest of rabbits — A word 
about the bushrangers — Highwaymen of fame and how they were extirpated, 177-181 

CHAPTER XVIir. 

SOME BIG BLUNDERS. 

Reception at Melbourne — A lecture before an immense audience — A dreadfully mixed advertisement — The 
University of Hard Knocks — How fortunes have been made — Variety of occupations — Analysis of pro- 
fessional mountebanks — Encouragement for the persistent — Concentration of effort — Amusements- 
Home ties — Philosophy in the household — Domestic economics — Strength in a wife's fidelity — Secret 
of contentment — A striking debit account — Mesmerism and credulity — A happy night in the country' 
— ^The old-fashioned fireplace — Progress, progress— Story of the old engineer 182-198 

CHAPTER XIX. 

GATE OF DEPARTURE. 

How Dr. Talmage paid the expenses of his tour — Preaching in the Town Hall of Melboume— A panic 
barely averted — Some prominent persons the Doctor met in Australia — The siege of Lucknow 
explained by a participant— Something about Sir Henry Parkes— Renewing old acquaintances — 
Good-bye to Australia, I99-205 

CHAPTER XX. 

THE ISLE OF PALMS. 

The voyage to Ceylon — A land of delight to the sportsnian^Nature in a profui;ion of both animal and 
vegetable life — First sight of Cevlon's emerald shores — The harbor of Colombo — Visit to a Huddhist 
college — The noisy ceremony in a Buddhi.st temple— Dr. Talmage addresses a group of natives in the 
street — Pillar of light and colossus of gloom 206-2II 



viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

RELIGIONS, GOOD AND BAD. p^^^ 

A solemn procession - Education in Ceylon— The devil-worshipers— Superstition taking the part of phy- 
sician — Buried cities of Ceylon — Comparison between churches militant— Stor>' of creation — Different 
sects among Christians confusing to Hindoos— Zoroaster, Buddha, Mahomet and Christ 212-219 

CHAPTER XXII. 

THE CINGALESE. 

Busy scenes in the streets of Colombo— Male and female natives of Ceylon— Queer people and .strange 
customs — Cities of the past — Wonderful ruins uncovered by archaeologists- Wild animals howling 
through deserted halls— Sacred relics of Buddha— A gigantic tooth — Pearl fishers of Ceylon— The 
largest ruby in the world, 220-226 

CHAPTER XXni. 

ISLE OF IVORY. 

Munificence of Ceylon — Animal life of the Island — Flying foxes intoxicated — Land of the elephant— A 
grand hunt bj' royalty — Man killed by an elephant — How a war elephant captured a cit}' — The deadly 
cobra — Sacredness of the poisonous reptile — An implacable enemy — Fight between a cobra and mon- 
goose — Valuable trees of Ceylon, 227-233 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE ENTRANCE TO INDIA. 

Ascent of the Hooghlj' River — Interesting sights along the shores— Suspicious of the kodak — Provisions 
for the hot climate of India — Adaptation to changed conditions — A. pen sketch of Calcutta— The land 
of idols — An interview with a fakir — Adroitness of the priest — Headquarters of Christian missions, . 234-243 

CHAPTER XXV. 

BURNING OF THE DEAD. 

The capital of Hindooism — The holy city of Benares — Preparation of dead bodies for cremation — Corpses 
committed to the Ganges — Sacrilegious customs — Marriage in India — Treatment of wives — Manufac- 
ture of Hindoo gods— Condition of women in India — The ghatsof Benares — The Golden and Monkey 
Temples — Wonder worship of the fakirs — Devils acting as attendants to Siva — Sacred monkey's — 
Sumptuous marriage of two monkeys — Activity of the missionaries — Their hard work and self-denial, 244-252 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

GREAT SNAKES! 

Dreadful mortality from snake-bites — A natural enemy of the cobra — Description of a battle witnessed by 
Dr. Talmage — How a mongoose fought and killed a cobra — A state of nervous expectancy — Reptiles 
make repulsive bed-fellows — Worship of snakes — Snake charmers — Some chilly experiences — Uncanny 
things of the household, 253-258 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE TRAGEDY OF LUCKNOW. 

A !>tory of cruelty, heroism and horror — The Sepoy rebellion — Causes which led to the mutiny — Siege of 
the Residency — Dr. Talmage's visit to the place of slaughter - Description of a battle — Bravery of Sir 
Henry Lawrence — Heroic death of the General— Pathetic incidents —Horrible massacre of women 
and children — Instances of wonderful devotion — "The Campbells are Coming " — Life out of death, . 259-267 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

ANOTHER WOE IS PAST. 

An Iliad of woes — A mutilated and groaning procession — Death of Havelock— Life of a Christian general 
—A speech that fired a regiment — The charge at Lucknow— War to the death — Story of the 
survivors — Atrocious customs of Hindoos — How the English are regarded by the natives — A 
suggestion to the Home Government — A banquet with heroes of the India wars — An epigrammatic 
order, 268-273 



CONTENTS. ix 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE CITY OF BLOOD. ^^^^ 

Storv of the Cawnpore massacre — Nana Sahib tlie monster — Something of his personality — Extract from a 
famous document — Refuge place of the hunted Christians — A brave defence — The dance of death — 
Allured to destruction — Inscriptions of hope on prison walls— Nana Sahib's treachery — T\vent\--eight 
boat loads of women and children butchered — The climax of diabolism — A story that makes strong 
hearts bleed — Punishment of the butchers — A visit to Memorial Well — The end of Nana Sahib— The 
lost ruby, 274-281 

CHAPTER XXX. 

MAGNIFICENCE OF THE TAJ MAHAL. 

The most sumptuous structure in the world — A sublimation of all architecture — Dr. Talmage's visit to the 
Taj Mahal— Rapture of garden, and ecstasy of marble — -A bewildenuent of splendors — Description of 
the mari-elous mausoleum — A building that cost sixty millions of dollars — .Architectural miracle of 
all ages, 2S2-286 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

DELHI, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL. 

Antiquitv of Delhi — A rage of malignant fevers — A menagerie in a glass of water — How the natives butter 
toast — Provisions for India travel — A dramatic storj- of flight and murder — Heroism of the Wagen- 
treibers —Siege of Delhi — John Nicholson, hero - Description of the fight at Cashmere Gate — Palace of 
the Moguls — The Peacock Throne, which cost one hundred and fifty millions of dollars — .A coronet em- 
blazoned with the Kohinoor diamond — Floors reddened with slaughter — Mosque of Jumma Musjid — 
Relics of Mahomet — Wonders wrought at the order of Shah Jehan — .A dream of the past 2S7-299 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

CITY OF ELEPHANTS. 

A visit to Jeypore — Description of the city- Street scenes — The king's herd of elephants — Invasion of the 
sand — Temple of the Sun — Zoological and botanical gardens — Palace of the Maharaja — The Prince 
Jev Singh — Magnificence heaped \%-ith splendors — The deserted citj- of Amber — Dr. Talmage describes 
his ride on an elephant's back — Dazzling beauties, 300-306 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE FIRE WORSHIPERS— RELIGION OF THE PARSEES. 

Something about the Zend Ave.sta — Beliefs and superstitions — .An interview with a Parsee priest — A lovely 
garden — The Tower of Silence — Disposition of the dead — Vultures at the feast — A Parsee priest 
defends the custom of exposing corpses — Democracy of the tomb — A Parsee wedding ceremony — 
Condition of women in India — Christianity contrasted with Hindooism, 307-314 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

UNDERSIDE OF INDIA. 

A visit to the Elephanta Caves — Profusion of vine and flower — A cobra by the way — A temple of porphyrj' 
Colossal statues of the Hindoo gods— Hindoo mythology — A great congress of Gods — Work of the 
missionaries 3IS~3l8 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE PYRAMID. 

A stroll through Cairo— Strange emotions — Ascent of the pyramid — A view from the apex — Description 
of this wonder of centuries — The uses it serves- Some reflections — Who was Cheops ? — The ravages 
of time — The voice of God 319-33O 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 
THE ARTERY OF EGYPT. page. 
Wonderful ancient river — Efforts to discover its source — A fulfillment of prophecy — A trip up the Nile — 
Relics of mightiness — Alexandria of the past — Death of Hj'patia — Destruction of the city — Spoiling 
the Egyptians — Bible records along the Nile — A land of graves — A stop at the ruins of Memphis — 
Temple of the Sun — Hundred gated Thebes — Testimony of the dead city — War about a book — Mar- 
velous Karuac— Dust to Dust, 331-341- 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 
THE BRICK-KILNS OF EGYPT. 

The mother of nations — Observance of old customs — Brutalities of Egyptian taskmasters — Tears and 
blood — Pharaoh's works — Taxation and slavery — Joseph the prime minister — Moses a saviour — God 
works in mysterious ways — Deification of the Nile — ^Journey of the Israelites — The Red Sea Cataclysm 
— Mohammedanism in Egypt — Sarcophagi of mouarchs — Pharaohs of the present 342-351 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
THE ARCHIPELAGO. 

The sphinx — Something grander than the pyramids— Good-bye to Egypt — Among islands of the New 
Testament — In a harbor of Cyprus —Resurrected treasures — Wonderful history of Cyprus — Threading 
the islands of the Grecian cluster — Island of Rhodes — The great statue of Apollo — Following St. 
Paul — Isle of Patmos — Scene of the apocalyptic vision — Miserable loneliness of St. John — Panorama 
of the cavern — The broken seals, 352-35S 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 
EPHESUS. 

The martyrdom of Polycarp — Bible porphecy fulfilled — St. Paul and the mob — The wonderful Stadium — ■ 
St. Paul before the lions — The magnificence of ancient Ephesus — Temple of Diana — Wonder upon 
wonder — Architecture that dazzles all ages — Description of the grandest statue ever set up — Worship 
of Diana — Grave of the holy mother — The magic arts — A treasure house of nations — Decline of 
Ephesus — Altars, temples and gymnasiums, 359-36S 

CHAPTER XL. 
THE CROWN OF GREECE. 

Arrival at Athens — City of culture and beauty— A walk through the streets — The Stadium at Athens -A 
slaughter of wild beasts — Description of the Acropolis — Victory without wings — Marvelous Pantheon— 
O, wonderful works of men — St. Paul on Mars Hill — A splendid comparison — Resurrection and 
judgment — An astounding scene — Voice of Mars Hill — Vanished glories — Reminiscences, 369-379 

CHAPTER XIvI. 
POMPEII. 

Volcanic illumination— The mysteries of Vesuvius— At the corpse of a dead city— Description of Pompeii — 
Temples of the buried city — Pomp and beauty overwhelmed in a night — Review of Pompeii in its 
glory — The last day — Vesuvius in awful eruption — Avalanche of ashes and fiery cinders — A scene of 
unparalleled fui-y— Resurrection of the buried city— Reading the story of the ruins— Disentombment 
of galleries, rare specimens and bodies— The sins of a city— Verification of the prophecies— America 
for God, 3S0-3S7 

CHAPTER XLII. 
THE COLOSSEUM. 

A visit to the eternal city— In the footsteps of Paul— The Mamertine dungeon— A miracle of architecture- 
Description of the Colosseum— Gladiatorial combats— Bloody beasts and dying men— Horror upon 
horror — Heroism of Telemachus — Savagery of modern civilization — Evils of present day politics — 
Cruelties and oppressions— Solitude of the ruined Colosseum— Monarchs arraigned before judgment 
—Mercy 3SS-396 



CONTENTS. xi 

CHAPTER XLIII. 

MY RECEPTION IN THE RUSSIAN PALACE. page. 

Misconceptions of Russians - Slanders and vituperation — Cause of this malignant falsification — The cholera 
incubus — Sample falsehoods — A plain question — Russia no worse than other nations — An optimistic 
picture — Right ideas about Russia — How that great countr}' has ever been America's best friend — 
Meaning of Russian fleets in American waters — Importance of cultivating Russia's friendship — Calum- 
nies about the Emperor — Some apt comparisons — Emancipation of the serfs — Merciful disposition of 
Alexander II — The devil of persecution — Falsehoods about Siberia and the convicts — Trial by jur}'— 
Charitable organizations — A charit)' that challenges all history — Invited to meet the Emperor — An 
interview in the palace of Peterhof — Emperor Alexander's cordial hospitality — Description of Alex- 
ander III — The Empress and her children — A visit to JIoscow — Surprising things in that ancient 
city —Accession of Nicholas the Second, 397-430 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

GOSPEL OF BREAD. 

The famine in Russia— Dr. Talmage takes a ship-load of flour to St. Petersburg — His reception by the 

Mayor — Food for the starviug — Presentation of a superb tea-set 431-432 

CHAPTER XLV. 

GREAT BRITAIN. 

Painting in cheerful colors — Good words about England — A generous welcome — Samples of English 
weather — A criticism on growlers — Disagreeable persons are everywhere — Muscle and digestion — 
Down in a coal mine— Something about men who delve in the earth — Ruins of Kirkstall Abbe\' — 
Spirits of the past — A tragic romance — An interview with Gladstone — A ramble with the grand old 
man through Hawarden forest — Story of a wounded soldier — Discussion on home rule — John Ruskin 
— An accidental meeting with the great author — Influence of his writings, 433-450' 

CHAPTER XLVI. 

SCOTLAND. 

Charming scenerj- — Baptism of a Scotch baby— Robert McCheyne, the great preacher — Remarks about 
the Scotch character — ^John Bright — Our exports to the British Isles — The Highland show — A sail on 
the River Taj' — Wishart and the assassin — Heroes of the past — Ruins of famous castles — False opin- 
ions about aristocracy — Interesting facts about famous persons — The midnight charities of London — . 
Lord Kintore among the poor — A visit to Wales — Land of unpronounceable names — Literature of the 
Welsh — In a car with a maniac — .•Vn hour of terror — Some differences between America and Eng- 
land — English homes and resorts — A tribute to the Rev. Robertson — The Isle of Wight — Famous 
places of England — Ruins of U\'icanium — Wonderful recoveries — .A queer story about Peverel and 
the devil — A trip to Ireland — The magnetic eloquence of O'Connell — Ireland of to-da\- compared with 
Ireland of the last centurj' — Tom Galvin, the hangman — Tiger Roche's career — A better time com- 
ing — Belfast and Londonderry — The giant's amphitheatre and Dunkerry cave — Traditions and 
description of the Giant's Causeway, 451-4S5 

CHAPTER XLVII. ' 

ON THE HOME STRETCH. 

Life on the ocean wave — The discomforts of traveling — Some thanks for hardships endured — A p^ean of 
the sea — Impressions of the journey — Troubles that beset us — Tales of travelers— America the land 
of blessings — Labor in America compared with that in other countries — Republic America contrasted 
with Monarchical Europe — Princely salaries to sinecures —The Thanksgiving table being set in Amer- 
ica — The civic and the military, the political and the religious —Ecstatic sight of native land — New 
York harbor — Conclusion of the journey — An apostrophe to home, 4S6-503 




My Palanquin and Bearers froiilispicce. 

Royal Elephant Carriage Used by Dr. Talinage in 

India, . . xii 

Carved Representation of Heathen Deity, . . . xvi 
Carving in Balcony, Kyaung, at Mgingydn, East 

India, 34 

Celebration of the Silver Anniversary of Dr. Tal- 

mage's Brookh^n Pastorate, 37 

My Traveling Companion, Frank DeWitt Talmage, aS 

The Tabernacle Before the Fire 49 

Grand Caiion of the Colorado, 52 

Photograph of Dr. Talmage, 55 

Lookout Mountain, 57 

River Stj'x, Mammoth Cave, ... ■ ■ ■ ■ 59 

Main Street, Salt Lake City, 60 

Mount of the H0I3' Cross, .... 6r 

Denver, from the Capitol, 63 

Broadmoor Casino, Colorado Springs, .... 64 

Pulpit Rock, Utah, ' 6,s 

Grand Caiion of the Colorado, . 66 

The Devil's Shde. Utah 67 

The Breaking Railroad Bridge, 68 

Cliff House, and Seal Rocks, 70 

Chinatown, San Francisco 71 

Captain Morse, of the "Alameda." 74 

The " Alameda " Passing the Golden Gate, ... 75 

Dr. Talmage on the "Alameda," 76 

Harbor of Honolulu 77 

Night Scene in the Crater of Kilauea, 78 

Ex-Queen Lilliokoulani 80 

S. P. Dole, President of Hawaii, 81 

National Palace, Honolulu, 82 

Main Street, Honolulu, 84 

Hawaiian Girls, . . 85 

Princess Napilonius' Residence, ... .... 87 

Remains of King Kalakanu Lying in State, ... 88 

Statue of Kamehameha I. 89 

Kaufohe Park, Honolulu, 90 

Captain Cook's Monument, 91 

Rice Cultivation, Hawaii, 92 

A Native Feast, Hawaii 94 

An Aspirant to the Throne of Samoa 96 

Samoan Residence, 98 

King and Queen of Samoa 99 

Burmese Mother and Son, Showing Sample of Tat- 
tooing Among Uncivilized Races, 100 

Samoan Girls Making Kava, 10 r 

Samoan Girls Playing Cards, 102 

Samoan Country Residence 103 

A Maori Chief, New Zealand 104 

A Maori Dwelling 105 

Rhinoceros Himters loS 



Maori Couple, New Zealand, no 

Suburbs of Auckland, in 

Maori Widows 1 14 

Fijian Houses, 116 

Milford Sound, New Zealand, 118 

A Lady of the Archipelago 120 

Banana Grove, Fiji, 122 

New Zealand Scenery, 124 

Shipping an Elephant, 126 

Public Buildings, Sidne}-, Australia 130 

Sidney Tram Car, 134 

Dr. Talmage Among South Sea Savages, 138 

A Beautiful Woman of the East, 140 

Mount Camamera in Eruption, 141 

The Pink Terraces, 143 

Australian Aborigines 146 

Tattooed Girl of Oceanica, 147 

Barron River Native, 14S 

Sidney Head, Sidney Harbor, . . 149 

Dr. Talmage Preparing to Go Down into a Gold 

Mine, 151 

Loddon Falls, New South Wales 153 

Cascade, Loddon River, 155 

Tasman's Arch, 156 

Corabboree Dance, Australia, 159 

Singalese Beggar, 161 

Work in the Shearing House 165 

Shearing Sheep, 167 

Sheep Range, Australia 169 

Old Penal Colony of Australia, .... 172 

A Blind Hindoo Boy Reading with His Fingers, . 173 

Sidney Gardens, Australia, 175 

Sidney Harbor, 177 

Kangaroos, 17S 

Laughing Jackass, 179 

Town Hall Organ, Melbourne, J S3 

General Post-office, Sidnev 185 

Town Hall, Sidney, . . . ' 187 

Native Sailors of the South Seas 189 

Jenolan Caves, India igr 

Burmese Puray, Danced Before Prince Albert Vic- 
tor, at Mandalay, 193 

A Princess of Bunnah in Court Co.stume 195 

David Jamal, Dr. Talmage's Dragoman, .... 197 

The Elephant Bath, ' 198 

Sir Henry Parkes, 200 

The Relief of Lucknow, 201 

Dr. Talmage on Deck of Ceylon Steamer 203 

Anuilets Taken from the Body of Tippo Sahib, . . 204 

Commander-in-chief of the Kurmese Army, . . . 205 

Weighing the Emperor 207 

Modern Crucifixion of Criminals in India 208 



(xiii) 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE. 

Colossal Idol of Buddha, 209 

The Wonderful Iron Pillar 213 

An Incident of Railroading in India 215 

Famine Scene in an Indian City 217 

State Horse of India, 218 

A Brahmin Wedding, 221 

Serpent Pagoda, 223 

The Worshipful Tooth of Buddha 224 

Worship at Sunset on the Saami Rock, . . 225 
Return to the Monastery of Burmese Priests After 

Begging Their Daily Food, 226 

The War Elephant, .... 229 

Lower Flight of Stone Steps, Mihinteale 230 

Shrine on the Summit of Adonis Peak, 232 

Group of Hindoo Girls at their Toilet, 233 

A Devotee Enduring the Fire 234 

Shipping in the River Hooghlj', 235 

Bishop Heber's Statue, Calcutta 236 

Nepalese Ladies in Costume, .■ 237 

Site of the Black Hole, 238 

Group of Devotees in a Temple, 239 

A Burmese Cart, 240 

The Three Cars of Juggernaut, 241 

Carved Images of Dagon, 242 

Corpse in the Ganges and Cremation on the Bank, 244 

Our Camel Carriages 245 

Preparation for the Immolation of a Widow, . . . 246 

Monkej- Temple, Benares, 247 

Brahma as the Four-faced Buddha 24S 

Golden Temple, Benares 249 

Gosain Temple, Benares 251 

The King of Napaiil and Commanding Generals, . 252 

The Mongoose, . 253 

Festival of the Serpents, 254 

Indian Conjuring Trick, 255 

A Hindoo Juggler, 256 

Fakir of the Immovable Foot, 257 

Fakir of the Long Nails, 257 

Fakir Hanging to a Limb, 257 

Hindoo Stone Carvers, 258 

Lieutenants Havelock and Fuselien, 260 

Relief of Lucknow, 261 

General Havelock Greeted by Those He Saved, . 262 

Signatures of the Heroes of Lucknow, 263 

Prayer by the Wayside 264 

Hindoo Priest at His Devotions, 265 

Nepalese Generals and Chinese Embass}- 267 

Sir Henry Havelock, 268 

The Viceroj-'s Elephants, 269 

Sir Colin Campbell, 271 

A Hindoo Girl's School, 272 

Hiudoos Telling Their Beads 273 

Nana Sahib, 275 

Scene of the Cawnpore Massacre, 277 

Memorial Well, Cawnpore, 280 

On the Banks of the Ganges, . . - 281 

The Taj Mahal, 2S2 

Gatewa}- to Garden of the Taj, 284 

Tomb of the Oueen in the Taj 285 

The Fort at Agra, 289 

Akbar's Palace, the Throne Room, 290 

Rebel Sepoys at Delhi, 291 

Shooting Prisoners from a Gun 292 

Through the Streets of Cawnpore 293 

Chamber of Blood, Cawnpore 295 

Audience Room, or Peacock Throne Chamber, . . 297 
Buddhist Sacred Cave and Carved Figure of Gan- 

daura, . . 299 

Shira's Bull, Mysore, 300 

Dr. Talmage and Son on an Elephant, 30J: 

The Prince of Wales Starting on a Hunt, .... 302 

Burmese Cart, 304 



Sir J. Fayrer, 306 

Parsee Tower of Silence, Bombay, 307 

Plan of a Tower of Silence, 309 

Car of Juggernaut, 310 

A Parsee Wedding 312 

Colonnade at Mahablesbwar 313 

Inspection Daj' at an East India Penitentiary . . . 314 

Entrance to the Elephanta Caves, 315 

A Wall Inside the Elephanta Caves, 316 

Black Marble Elephant 317 

Suez Canal and Suez Town 319 

The Port of Lsmailia, 320 

Great Pj'ramid and Sphinx, 321 

Pompey's Pillar, Alexandria, 322 

Cit}' of Alexandria, Place of the Consuls, .... 323 

Caravan on the Waj- to Mecca, 324 

Dr. Talmage on the Summit of the P\-ran)id, . 325 

Great P\'ramid of Cheops, 326 

Cake Vendors of Cairo, 327 

Interior of the Temple of Denderah, ... . . 328 

Temples of Luxor, 329 

Shadorf, for Raising Water from the Nile, . . . 332 

Moorish Ladies' Apartment, 333 

A Dahabeah, or Nile Boat 334 

Natives of the Upper Nile at Prayer, 335 

Barrage, or Wingdam, on the Nile, 336 

Rameseum and Tombs of the Kings, Thebes, . . . 337 

Obelisk and Propylon of the Temple of Luxor, . 33S 

Goddesses Crowning Pharaoh 339 

The Colossi of Thebes 340 

General View of Luxor 342 

Island of Philae, 343 

Propylon of the Temple Denderah, 344 

Pharaoh's Bed, Philae 345 

Mummy of Rameses III 346 

View of the Ruins at Philae, 346 

Tombs of the Caliphs, Cairo, 347 

Avenue of Sphinxes. Karnak, 348 

Deck Scene on a Dahabeah, 349 

Great Hall of Columns, Karnak, 350 

Prop}-lon,of the Temple of Isis, Philae, 351 

Greek Ceremony of Washing the Feet 353 

Church of San Georgio Maggiore, Venice, . . . 355 

Venice, Pearl of the Adriatic, 357 

Ephesus Restored, . . 360 

Theatre of Dionj-sius, Ephesus 361 

Statue of Diana in the Ephesian Temple 363 

Whirling Dervishes of Constantinople, 365 

Ruins of the Gymnasium, Ephesus 366 

Ancient Corinth, Restored, 367 

Paul Exhorting Felix 370 

General View of Athens 371 

View of the Acropolis, 372 

Paul Discoursing with Aquila and Priscilla,. . . '. 373 

Ancient Athens, Restored 375 

Facade of the Parthenon 376 

Prison of Socrates, Athens, 377 

Theatre of Bacchus 378 

Eruption of Vesuvius 381 

Street of the Tombs, Pompeii, - . 3S2 

Cast of a Human Body, from Pompeii, 383 

Crater of Vesuvius, 385 

Interior of the Museum, Pompeii, 3S6 

Ruins of the Colosseum, Rome, 389 

Temple of Minen-a, Rome, 390 

Altar to the Unknown God, Rome, 391 

Interior of the Chapel Where Peter Was Crucified, 392 

General View of Rome 393 

Excavations of the Forum, Rome 394 

The Vatican, Rome, 395 

House of the Romanoffs. Moscow, 397 

Louis Klopsch, Editor Christian Herald, .... 39S 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE. 

The Imperial Family, 399 

Dowager Empress and Her Daughter 400 

A Winter Day in St. Petersburg, 401 

Prefect of St. Petersburg 402 

Arch of Triumph, Moscow, 403 

Dr. Talmage Leaving the City Hall, 404 

Russian Jlilitary Types 405 

Fortress of Sts. Peter and Paul, 406 

Public Jluseum, Moscow, . . 407 

The Way I Was Received at St. Petersburg, . . . 40S 

A Friendly Talk with the Czar 409 

Nicholas II., Emperor of Russia 410 

My Reception and Inter\-iew with the Czar, ... 411 

Scenes of Dr. Talmage's Reception, 412 

The Baths, Peterhof, 413 

Fountain in the Garden, Peterhof, 414 

Basin of Neptune, Peterhof 415 

The Great Bell, Moscow, 416 

Convoy of Condemned, Russia, 417 

Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, . 418 

St. Isaac's Cathedral, St. Petersburg, 419 

Jew Merchants 420 

Toiver of Soukareff, Moscow, ... .... 421 

House of Peter the Great, 422 

General View of the Kremlin, Moscow 423 

Great Votive Church, Moscow, 424 

Palace and Treasur}', Moscow, 425 

Gold Enameled Tea Service, 426 

Temple of Our Saviour, Moscow 427 

Autographs of the Emperor and Empress, ... 42S 

Cathedral of Ostaukino, Moscow, . . .... 429 

Dr. Talmage Responding to Speech of Welcome, . 431 

Buckingham Palace, Front Mew, 433 

Buckingham Palace, Side View, 434 

Buckingham Palace, Throne Room 435 

Marlborough House, Loudon 436 

A Corner in the House of Commons, 438 

St. Paul's Cathedral, from Bankside, 440 

Front View- of St. Paul's Cathedral, 441 

Fleet Street and St. Paul's, London, 443 

Hawarden Castle, 444 

Gladstone in Hawarden Wood 445 

Rt. Hon. Wm. E. Gladstone, 447 



PAGE. 

John Ruskin, As I Saw Him, 449 

House of John Knox, Edinburgh, 452 

Knox Church, where I Preached, 453 

Balmoral Castle 454 

The Queen's Cameron Highlanders, 455 

Ross Castle, 456 

Holyrood Castle, 457 

Robert Burns' Cottage, 458 

Downe Castle and Gallows Tree, 459 

Melrose Abbey, 460 

The Old Curiosity Shop 461 

Victoria Embankment, London, 463 

Westminster Abbey, London, . . 464 

Westminster Bridge and Clock Tower, 465 

Coronation Chair, Westminster, 467 

The Beach at Brighton, 469 

Tower of London, 470 

London Bridge, 471 

Tower Bridge, London, 473 

Victoria Embankment Gardens, 475 

PiccadilU' Circus, London, 476 

Oueenstown Harbor, Ireland, 477 

View of Lake Killarney, 478 

Blarne}- Castle, Showing Blarney Stone, 479 

Fingals Cave, Staffa, Ireland 480 

Eton College, 4S1 

Stoke Pogis Church and Churchyard, 483 

North Front Windsor Castle, . " 484 

Balliol College, Oxford, 486 

Bank of England 487 

Crystal Palace 488 

Law Courts, London, .... 489 

Dr. Talmage's Farewell Meeting at Hyde Park, . 491 

Conway Castle, North Wales, 492 

St. James' Palace, London 493 

Nelson's Monument, Trafalgar Square 494 

Room in which Shakespeare Was Born 495 

Open Air Seri'ices Before John Wesley Church, . . 497 

Spurgeon's Tabernacle 498 

New Vork Bay and Castle Garden 499 

Drawing Room in Dr. Talmage's House, 501 

Sleeping Room in Dr. Talmage's House, 502 



EIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS IN COLORS. 



1. IVfy Palanquin and Bearers. 

2. Tea Gatherers. 

3. Mohammedan Rajah and Court Officers. 

4. Burmese Country Carriage. 



5. King Thebaw's Prima Donna. 

6. Children of the Orient, 

7. Golden Pagoda. 

8. Palace of an Indian Queen. 



Choice Initial Letters. 



Presentation Plate. 



AUTHO-R'S PHEFACE. 



OHE preface is something that must be done. A book without a preface is a 
house without a knob on the door, and without front steps. A book cannot 
look you full in the face until it is introduced by such a prefix. But in the 
millennium there will be no prefaces. They belong to the imperfect ages. If a book 
be good it needs no preface, and if it be useless or bad no amount of literar\- genu- 
flexions at the start can sa\-e it. Beside that, if the author tells in a preface what he is 
going to do in the subsequent Jjages, he robs them of novelty. If }'ou want to know what 
this book is, read it. Suffice it to say that it is an account of one journey around the 
world, v/ith here and there a scene from my previous journeys to complete the links of 
the story. 



Washington, D, C, 
March s, iSg6. 



(3.3) 



Publisher's T^reface 



..Concerning... 



"Dr. Talmage's American Celebration and "Reception Before Startins 
on His Earth-Girdling Tour. 



OHERE are heroes of peace greater, because more glorioxis in fheir iisefulness, 
than demi-gods of war. He who builds is better than he who destroys ; that 
one who binds up a wound is nobler than he who strikes down. The truly 
illustrious, the lordly, the blessed, are they who add to the joys of life, whose 
lives are at once song, fragrance, sunshine and e.xample. It is infinitely better to endure 
for all time in the hearts of men, than to rest under the most splendid monument that pride 
can rear to genius, for one speaketh continualh' while the other becomes dumb and forgotten 
under the rust of age. A man's reputation should be measured not onl)' by the esteem of 
his contemporaries, but also by his deeds and works for mankind, which will live after 
him. By such an appraisement of man's value, the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage must be 
regarded as a conspicuous example of worldly benefice as well as an instrument in God's 
hands for infinite good. His life is like a benediction, for he makes every man his brother ; 
he scatters kindness as the sower scatters seed ; he is a Samaritan among the needy, a 
defender of the weak, a Samson that gives battle to the lions of evil. People often ask, 
" To what denomination does Dr. Talmage belong ? " The answer must be given that 
while he is a member of one church he is a clergyman of all churches that teach Christ. 
Not one who prepares the way as did the Baptist, nor as one who establishes churches as 
did Paul, but he is a disciple and evangelist ; a teacher not of doctrines, but of brotherhood ; 
who talks to the human heart, and who dispenses joy and love to all people, whose taber- 
nacle is the heavens above, and the world his congregation. 

For twenty-five years Dr. Talmage ministered to a charge in the city of Brooklyn, 
New York. He went to that place a stranger, and he began preaching there to small 
audiences, but his friends multiplied, his hearers rapidly increased in numbers, his 
popularity grew apace, and very soon the church in which he discoursed was found to be 
too small to accommodate all who came to hear him. A larger one was erected, but in a 
few years it too became inadequate, both in size and convenience. A fire destroyed it, 
without loss of life, and then a larger tabernacle was built, but his congregation increased 
so rapidly that, large as the structure was, it could not contain all that would hear him. 
A second time the tongue of flame touched and consumed his church edifice, but fire 
purifieth, and with unruffled resolution, unquenchable and unconquerable spirit. Dr. Talmage 
took upon himself the burden of raising a sum of money with which to build tlie largest 
tabernacle in America ; a temple of worship that would gi\e opportunity to thou.sands who 
had been denied the privilege of listening to his eloquence ; large enough not only to 
receive his regular congregation, but sufliciently ample to also hold tlie great number of 

(35) 



36 . THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

strangers who, visiting New York, sought the chance of hearing the most famous divine 
of the century. In this work of designing, and of raising funds, Dr. Tahnage contributed 
all the energies of his tongue, pen and means. He preached, lectured, wrote and appealed ; 
every day of the week his efforts were exerted in this splendid enterprise. No other man 
gave so liberally as he, both of work and mone}', toward carrying his conception of a 
colossal, grand, triumphant tabernacle to success. At last the great edifice was completed ; 
the most glorious hour of his life was when the oratorio of dedication resounded through 
its spacious naves, and the world accepted the Brooklyn Tabernacle as a monument to the 
indefatigable energies and wide-reaching influence of Dr. Tahnage, as well as a magnificent 
temple for the worship of God, the doors of which were thrown wide open to people of 
every faith, and in which charity and brotherhood had an unalterable abiding place. 

Dr. Talmage has always been an immense worker ; who that has read his sermons, has 
read his contributions to the press, has read the books which pour from his pen, has .seen, or 
can understand, the numerous duties which devolve upon him as pastor of the largest 
congregation in America ; the lectures which he delivers, the traveling that he is forced to 
■do, the entertainments which his position requires him to attend, the correspondence which 
■occupies so much of his time ; who that considers all this, will fail to wonder how he 
manages to do so much, and above all how human mind can accomplish what he does so well. 
But there is a limit even to his marvelous spirit and endurance, though his genius seems to 
rise above all physical limitations. He felt not the heavy hand of years so much as the 
burdens of manifold exactions and increasing requirements. When, therefore, the twenty- 
fifth 3'-ear of his pastorate in Brooklyn was about to close — twenty-five years of unremitting 
labor that would have crushed any man of less resolution — Dr. Talmage, through the urgings 
of his own congregation as much as by reason of an appreciation of his own ph3-sical needs, 
resolved to take an outing. He cannot endure rest, but he longed for recreation, for a change 
from the exhausting duties which had enslaved him for many years, and for the freshness of 
God's mornings in the wide pastures of the world. So, his determination having been made 
to take a vacation, he resolved to make a tour of the globe ; not as a tourist, but rather as a 
pastor who visits his communicants, for as Dr. Talmage has for a long while preached 
through the newspapers to more than twenty-five millions of persons ever}- week, and in 
nearly all the languages of civilization, wherever he might travel he would be certain to 
find many who are regular readers of his sermons. 

When the purpose of Dr. Talmage became known, it was immediatelj' proposed by 
many prominent citizens of Brooklyn to fittingly celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of 
his pastorate in that city. The suggestion was hailed with such universal approval that 
the movement spread all over the country, and thence to Europe, and to all Christendom, 
until, to satisfy the demand, the demonstration took the form of a national and international 
reception, which was to be given in the Great Tabernacle on the tenth and eleventh of 
May, 1894, three days before the day he had appointed for starting upon a circumnavi- 
gation of the earth. 

For this magnificent jubilee commemoration, which was at once ovation and psean, the 
great church building was splendidly and elaborately decorated with banners and flags. On 
the front of the great organ was a large portrait of Dr. Talmage surrounded by a cluster of 
American and flags of other nations. Underneath these was the inscription: " The Taber- 
nacle his pulpit ; the world his audience." The back of the platform was hung with crimson 
plush, embroidered with gold. In the centre stood an enormous bouquet of lilies and roses. 
The front of the galleries was draped with blue plush, heavily embroidered in gold, and 



38 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

everywhere were the Stars and Stripes, draping the cornices and windows, twined about 
pillars and outlined against the other hangings, so that the American flag dominated the 
building, and the occasion. And how grandly appropriate were these embellishments, for 
next to his allegiance to Christ Dr. Talmage acknowledges with loyal pride his loving fealty 
to his country. 

Eight o'clock was the hour appointed for the beginning of the celebrative services in 
the Tabernacle, but long before that time a tremendous crowd had gathered about the 
building completely blocking, with a jam of eager humanity, several squares. By seven 
o'clock, before the front doors were opened, the immense edifice, capable of seating 
comfortably 5000 persons, was filled to its utmost limit, save the platform, which had been 
reserved for special guests and those having in charge the commemorative exercises. When 
the hour of eight arrived services were opened by the organist, Henry Eyre Brown, 
rendering a brilliant composition of his own for the occasion, entitled " The Talmage Silver 
Anniversary March," which was received with a great applause. 

When the last note of the organ died away, and expectation was on tip-toe, a 
distinguished company of participants, headed by the Mayor of Brooklyn (Mr. Schieren), 
filed out of the pastor's room and onto the platform, followed by Dr. Talmage himself, who.se 
face was radiant with goodwill and gratitude. The exercises of celebration began by the 
entire audience singing the doxology, after which the Rev. James M. Farrar offered a prayer, 
then followed the introduction by Mr. Dimon, one of the trustees, of Mayor Schieren, who 
had been chosen to preside. 

The first night of the commenioratioir was a distinctively Brooklyn celebration, and 
nearly all the speakers were notables of that cit)-, among the number being distinguished 
Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and representatives of other denominations, 
besides the most prominent officials and citizens of Brooklyn. Mayor Schieren welcomed 
the vast audience in a speech of much warmth and congratulation, wherein he paid a 
splendid tribute to Dr. Talmage and to his congregation ; other eloquent speakers delivered 
encomiums on the genius and work of the great preacher, which were recei\-ed with the 
heartiest acclamations from the delighted gathering. Those who thus addressed the vast 
audience on the first night of the celebration were : Hon. Charles A. Schieren, Editor Bernard 
Peters, Rev. Father Sylvester Malone, Rev. Dr. John F. Carson, ex-Ma^^or David A. Boody, 
Rev. Dr. Gregg, Rabbi F. De Sol. Mendes, Rev. Dr. Louis A. Banks, Hon. John Winslow, 
Rev. Spencer F. Roche, Rev. A. C. Dixon. 

At the reception, Thursday evening, Rev. Dr. Gregg, among other things, said : 

"There is only one Dr. Talmage. There is more or less Talmage in every minister, but 
he is all Talmage. He lives among us unique. There is but one man in the American 
pulpit that can draw, and hold, and thrill, twice ever)' Sabbath the year roirnd, an audience 
of 8000. There is but one man on the globe that preaches the gospel every week through 
the press to 25,000,000. There is only one man living who, in taking a trip around the 
world, can say : ' I am simply out for a season of pastoral calls. I am taking a walk among 
the people of my congregation.' [Laughter and applause.] There is only one Dr. Talmage. 
With this fact before my mind I come to this great meeting to-night to congratulate our 
municipality that Dr. Talmage is a citizen of Brooklyn ; to congratulate this vast church 
that Dr. Talmage is still the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and to congratulate my 
brethren in the ministry that Dr. Talmage is still a member of the Bi-ooklyn Presbytery in 
good and regular standing. [Laughter.] As his nearest Presbyterian neighbor, and as one 
of the delegates of the Brooklyn Presbytery appointed to stand on this platform, I bring to 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 39 

Dr. Talmage and his great flock the goodwill and the prayers and the Godspeed of the 
Presbyterian community in this city of churches. I have come to this meeting to-night for 
another reason. It is a reason which all the ministers here have for coming. I come, as 
my brethren here come, to demonstrate to the public the freedom from jealousy which 
characterizes the men of the American pulpit. [Applause.] We heartily rejoice in the 
success of every true man of God, and we are glad of the opportunity to pay to every such 
man the tribute which he has lawfully earned. While I disclaim all jealousy and to-night 
willingly pay the tribute of praise to my beloved brother who rounds out a quarter of a 
century of multitudinous and successful labors in this tabernacle, I am honest enough to 
confess that I should like to be able to preach with a power that could set all these flags 
afloat and at full mast. The man who can do that is entitled to be circled round and round 
and to be saluted by these flags as Dr. Talmage is on this occasion. [Applause.] As I 
have seen Dr. Talmage from the pew I consider him the greatest word painter on any 
continent of earth. He paints for Christ. He thinks in pictures, and he who thinks in 
pictures thinks vividly. He paints with a large brush, with colors that burn and glow, and 
nations gather around his pictures and feel an uplift and a holy thrill. There is one thing 
which Dr. Talmage is able to use beyond any man I have ever heard speak, and that is the 
rhetorical pause. He makes his sermons vivid and impressive with the flash of a golden 
silence. Having rounded his period and finished his point he stops until the hush of heaven 
fills the house and until the audience has felt the power of God's truth." 

Among other things Rev. Dr. Banks said : 

"I am very glad, Mr. Chairman, of the opportunity of bringing my handful of wild 
flowers from the Oregon hillsides where I first came to know and admire Dr. Talmage (and 
where I never dreamed that I should ever live to see him in the flesh, much less take him 
by the hand), and add them to the garland we are weaving for the head of the most widely 
known chieftain of the American pulpit — indeed, I doubt not, the most universally read of 
all preachers now living in the world. I am glad to do this for several reasons. First, 
because Dr. Talmage has, in my judgment, done more to revolutionize preaching in respect 
to its being made entertaining and interesting, than any other man now among us. 

" It is equally true to say that no other minister of our time has done so much to give 
consecrated individualit}^ the right of way. I believe that in no other way has humanity 
lost so much as in the repression of individuality. Against the tendency to cut all ministers 
off of the same piece of cloth, make them up in the same style and hold them to a sort of 
sanctified dudeism, midway between a corpse-like dignity and pious imbecility. Dr. Talmage 
has stood as a pulpit Gibraltar, and thousands of young ministers, encouraged by his 
example and inspired by his independence, have been brave enough to be themselves and 
live their own lives and do their own work in their own way." 

At the close of the meeting Dr. Talmage was called for, and as he came forward the 
audience hailed him with such applause that it was several minutes before cjuiet could be 
restored sufficiently for him to speak. His response to this ovation was as follows : 

" Dear Mr. Mayor and friends before me, and friends behind me, and friends all around 
me, and friends hovering over me, and friends in this room and the adjoining rooms, and 
friends indoors and outdoors — forever photographed upon my mind and heart is this scene 
of May 10, 1894. The lights, the flags, the decorations, the flowers, the music, the illumined 
faces will remain with me while earthly life lasts, and be a cause of thank.sgiving after I 
have passed into the great beyond. Two feelings dominate me to-night — gratitude and 
unworthiness ; gratitude, first to God, and next to all you who ha\-e coniplimculed me by 



40 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

your presence or your speech, or who have by letter or telegram or cablegram sent salutations ; 
and unworthiness — for who would dare to take to himself one-half of the applaudatory 
things here to-night uttered? While our magnetic and eloquent friends were speaking 
it seemed that they must mean some other man than myself, someone with more gifts 
and holier life and higher achievements. What a commingling of all religions ! Surely 
upon no platform since the world stood have there been gathered so many different 
styles of belief. This is a section of the millennium let down. The lamb and the 
lion here lie down together, and you cannot tell who is the lion and who the lamb. 
The same spirit reigns here that the Quaker expressed to George Whitfield, when 
Whitfield in his clerical gown was disposed to criticise the broad-brimmed hat of the 
Quaker, and the latter said : ' George, I am as thou art. I am for bringing all men to 
the hope of the gospel ; therefore, if thou wilt not quarrel with me about mj' broad brim, I 
will not quarrel with thee about thy black gown. George, give me thy hand.' God bless 
the mayor, the ministers, the lawyers, the doctors, the merchants, the citizens, the splendid 
men and the magnificent women of Brooklyn. I am not surprised at what a policeman 
told me on the Brooklyn bridge a few days ago, when he said that he would rather be 
hung in Brooklyn than die a natural death in any other city. I cannot quite adopt that 
sentiment, but I do believe that Brooklyn is a lovely place for residence. There are three 
classes of people whom I especially admire : Men, women and children. All this scene 
to-night confirms me in the idea I long ago adopted, that this is the brightest and best world 
I ever got into. The fact is, I can stand as much kindness as any man I ever knew. My 
twenty-five years in Brooklyn have been happy years. Hard work of course. This is the 
fourth church in which I have preached since coming to Brooklyn, and how much of the 
difficult work of church building that implies you can appreciate. This church had its 
mother and its grandmother and its great-grandmother. I could not tell the story of 
disasters without telling the story of heroes and heroines, and around me in all these years 
have stood men and women of whom the world was not worthy. But for the most part the 
twenty-five years have been to me a great happiness. With all good people here present 
the wonder is, although they may not express it, ' What will be the effect upon the pastor 
of this church of all this scene ? ' Only one effect, I assure you, and that an inspiration for 
better work for God and humanity. And the question is already absorbing my entire nature, 
'What can I do to repay Brooklyn for this great uprising?' Here is my hand and heart 
for a campaign of harder work for God and righteousness than I have ever yet accomplished. 
I have been told that sometimes in the Alps there are great avalanches called down by a 
shepherd's voice. The pure white snows pile up higher and higher like a great white throne, 
mountains of snow on mountains of snow, and all is so delicately and evenly poised that 
the touch of a hand or the vibration oi air caused by the human voice will send down the 
avalanche into the valleys with all encompassing and overwhelming power. Well, to-night 
I think that the heavens above us are full of pure white blessings, moimtains of mercy on 
mountains of mercy, and it will not take much to bring down the avalanche of benediction, 
and so I put up my right hand to reach it, and lift my voice to start it. And now let the 
avalanche of blessing come upon your bodies, your minds, your souls, your homes, your 
churches and your city. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting, 
and let the whole earth be filled with His glory ! Amen and amen ! " 

At the conclusion of Dr. Talmage's remarks and thankofferings the audience applauded 
most heartily and then further manifested their feelings of loving appreciation and endear- 
ment by singing 

" God be -with you till we meet again." 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 41 

The services of the first day of celebration were concluded b\- the organist playing the 
march from " The Queen of Sheba," but it was not until after midnight that the gathering 
dispersed, so delightful had been the entertainment, in correspondence with the warmth of 
their affectionate esteem for the universally beloved pastor. 

SECOND DAY OF THE CELEBRATION. 

The evening of ]\Iay 10, 1894, will ever be a memorable anniversary for the people of 
Brooklyn, for upon that date, it will long be remembered, was given to Dr. Talmage such 
an ovation as few if any other civilians have ever received at the hands of their friends. 
The celebration of the conclusion of his twenty-five years of active ministerial labor in that 
city was made an event not only municipal, not only national, but international as well. 
The first evening of the services of commemoration was largely devoted to an expression of 
the loving regard in which Dr. Talmage is held by the people of his own city, but all 
Christendom wanted a voice in this service of celebration, approbation and admiration, and 
the occasion was therefore at hand upon which to express it. The second evening was 
accordingly made an international obser\^ance of the silver anniversary, and the participants, 
by presence, speech and letters, were from all parts of the world ; great men and distinguished 
women, thankful for the opportunity to offer their tributes to the preacher who every week 
sermonizes to people of every civilized land. 

The exercises of the second evening of celebration were opened with pra}-er by the 
eloquent Dr. Milbiirn, chaplain of the United States Senate, followed by the rendering of 
the " Talmage Silver Anniversary March " by the organist. Hon. B. F. Tracy, ex-Secretary 
of the Navy, was chosen to preside during the evening, and in accepting the position spoke 
as follows : 

SPEECH OF GENER.'VL TRACY. 

'■'■Ladies and Gentlemen — Among the great cities of the Union Brooklyn has man}- claims 
to distinction, and not the least of these is to be found in the learning, ability and patriotic 
zeal of its clergy. I speak only the simple truth when I say that the fame of Brooklyn 
rests largely upon the fame of its great preachers. It will, I think, be admitted by all that 
the people of Brooklyn are able to recognize a great preacher when they hear him, and 
when they call him to one of their churches they take him as a man takes the partner of 
his life, for better or worse so long as they both shall live. No really great preacher once 
settled in Brooklyn has ever left it to take up his field of labor elsewhere. Brooklyn is not 
a commercial city in the sense that is true of New York, Chicago, Boston or San Francisco. 
It is a city of homes and there is something in the strength and purity of its home influence 
and in the love of its people for a home life that has contributed largely to the marked 
success of its great public teachers. It has been called the City of Churches, not so much 
I apprehend because the proportion of churches to the population exceeds that of other 
cities as because of the deeper hold of the churches themselves upon the life of the people 
as well as the exceptional ability and devotion of the ministers that have filled their pulpits. 
Brooklyn does not postpone the just recognition of the services of its great religious teachers 
until after they are gone, but assists and co-operates with them in their good work by 
extending to them in their lifetime words of praise and encouragement. Such is the object 
and purpose of this celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the pastorate of Dr. 
Talmage in Brooklyn. Last evening Brookl\-n honored itself by a celebration, local in 
character, but this evening the celebration takes a wider scope. It becomes national and 



42 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

even international in its character. And it is fitting that it should be so. While Dr. 
Talmage for the last twenty-five years has been heard in Brooklyn, his sermons delivered 
here have been read the world over. No preacher of to-day, or of any day, or of any time, 
has been so generally heard and so widely read as Dr. Talmage. His sermons are published 
every week in more than three thousand different newspapers, each of which reaches 
thousands upon thousands of readers. There is scarcely a city or village in the United 
States from Maine to Texas, or from New York to San Francisco, in which the sermons 
delivered in this Tabernacle are not regularly published in full every week. The same is 
true of Great Britain. They are also published in Australia, New Zealand and in India, 
and they have been translated into more than half a dozen different European languages. 
It is believed that the sermons of Dr. Talmage enter week by week more than five millions 
of homes and are placed within the reach of more than twenty millions of people. And 
this has been so now for many years. No minister of the gospel in the world's history ever 
commanded in his lifetime so great an audience, and no stronger proof could be given that 
this man teaches what the world needs to hear, that he truly ministers to the souls of men. 
This is the secret of the influence which our friend has exerted, that in bearing his message 
he speaks a language that finds a response in every human heart. The breadth and depth 
and strength of that influence are attested by the warm and kindly greetings that we shall 
hear to-night from men of worth not only in this country, but throughout the world, men 
whose esteem and friendship are a valued possession to all who have been fortunate enough 
to win them. Many such men have come here to do him honor. Others, who could not 
come in person, take part in this celebration by sending their earnest congratulations. 
Among them are Senators of the United States, Governors of States, clergymen of distinction 
all over the world, the bishops of other churches and public men of foreign lands, and 
foremost among these last is that prominent statesman and scholar, only recently retired full 
of years and of honors. I mean the late prime minister of Great Britain, William E. 
Gladstone. Upon such men has the influence of the teachings of Dr. Talmage made itself 
felt. It has been diffused over all lands and among all classes and conditions of humanity. 
It has reached the furthest boundaries of the civilized world. It has touched those who 
guide and direct the affairs of nations as well as the humblest citizen. Such an influence is 
a powerful instrument for good. It is a common boast in this country that there is no 
connection between church and State, and in the sense that the State seeks not to control 
the church or the convictions of its members the boast is justified. But there is a broader 
meaning than this to the relation of church and State, which lies in the influence for good 
by the membership of the church upon the State and those who direct its affairs. And by 
the church I mean no sect or denomination, but the whole body of Christian believers. 
In this sense the connection cannot be too close, and it is far from being as close as it ought 
to be to-day. The church should exact the same standard of right in the conduct of public 
affairs that it exacts in the private lives of its members. It should tolerate no divergence 
from the straight path of public integrity. It should not palter with wickedness, even 
when the wickedness is sought to be excused on the ground that the offence is political 
rather than personal in its character. It should teach and should enforce the same code of 
morals and honesty in public life as in private life. It should crush out the theory which 
has been the root of much evil in our political system, that there is one code of morals in 
affairs of the State and another code of morals in the conduct of private relations. A man 
cannot be honest in streaks or in spots. An honest man must be an honest man throughout. 
A man who is not honest may simulate honesty for years, though his heart is rotten all the 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 43 

while. It is onh- the temptation and the opportunit}- that are wanting to show liini in his 
true character. A man with such a character, raised to eminent public office, engaged in 
the administration of public affairs, may work incalculable mischief both to the morals of 
the community and to the welfare of the State ; but so long as his dishonesty is against the 
State it is too often condoned and forgotten. To correct this error is one of the foremost 
duties of Christian citizenship in this age and in this country, and it is, I believe, in 
recognition of this fact and to do honor to one fearless in the discharge of his duty as a 
Christian teacher, in public as well as in private affairs, that we are assembled here to-night." 

General Tracj' was followed by the Hon. William M. Evarts, who spoke in a similarly 
eulogistic strain, after which Hon. Patrick Walsh, United States Senator from Georgia, 
delivered a most eloquent tribute which brought forth repeated applause. Hon. Joseph C 
Hendrix, Congressman from Brooklyn, delighted the immense audience with many witty 
references, and also with unstinted praise for Dr. Talmage, at the conclusion of which 
letters, telegrams and cablegrams were read from hundreds of persons, all expressive of 
great admiration for the subject of this grand and fitting international reception. Among 
those who thuf' participated in spirit in the celebration were Mr. Gladstone, the Arch- 
Deacon of London, Canon Wilberforce, Professor Simpson of Edinburgh, Thain Davidson, 
the Bishop of lyondon, the Governor-General of Canada, Count Andre Bobrinskoy, of St. 
Petersburg, ex-President Harrison, Senator John Sherman, Governor McKinley, and in 
fact Governors of nearly all the States, many members of the United States Senate, 
prominent ministers of various denominations, members of the Supreme Court, General 
Schofield, commander of the armies of the United States, and from distinguished persons 
in the various walks of life. 

Among the hundred or more letters and cablegrams containing congratulations that 
were read, were the following : 

Letter from Herbert Gladstone, Dollis Hill, N. W. : 

Mr. Gladstone, being somewhat out of healtli, has to restrict his correspondence as much as possible, but 
he desires me to say for him that Dr. Talmage always has his best wishes, and that he remembers with much 
interest the occasions when he has had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Talmage. 

Herbert Gladstone. 

Cablegram from Loudon : 

Cordial congratulations ; grateful acknowledgment of splendid services in ministry during last twentj'-five 
years. Warm wishes for future prosperity. 

Archdeacon of London, 
Canon Wilberforce, 
Thain Davidson, 
Professor Simpson, 
John Lobb, 
Bishop of London. 

Letter from Earl of Aberdeen, Governor-General of Canada, Ottawa : 

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the twenty-tliird of April, inviting me to 
be present at the reception to be tendered to the Rev. Dr. Talmage on the eleventh. 

I regret that, owing to engagements here, I am compelled to decline the courteous invitation thus extended 
to me, but I beg to offer good wishes in relation to this demonstration of esteem and goodwill toward Dr. 
Talmage. 



j$-6t4.<..,^CC^^X^ 



44 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

Russian cablegram from Count Andre Bobrinskoy, St. Petersburg, Russia : 
Heartfelt congratulations from gratefully remembering Russian friends. 

Letter from United States Senator John Sherman : 

Your kind invitation in behalf of your committee that I attend the reception to be tendered to Rev. T. 
DeWitt Talmage, D.D., LL.D., on the completion of the twenty-fifth year of his pastorate in Brooklyn is received. 
There is no one for whom I would more cheerfully express my sincere regard and my hearty appreciation of his 
wonderful ability than Mr. Talmage. I have heard him and heard of him for so many years, and have read so 
many of his sermons that I hold him in my estimation as the greatest preacher of our time. All this and much 
more I could say for him if I were at liberty to attend, but I feel that my official duties here will not permit me to 
leave at a time when so many interests are involved in the legislation of Congress. 

Thanking you for your kind invitation, I am. 

Very truly yours. 




Letter from William Walter Phelps, ex-Minister to Germany, Hot Springs, Va. : 

I shall not be well enough to accept the invitation, of which I would gladly avail myself, to testify that an 
acquaintance of a score of years, renewed at home and abroad, in public and private, has onl}' increased my 
admiration for the amount of patriotic, social and religious work which that impetuous, unselfish and gifted man, 
Dr. Talmage, has done. 

Letter from Governor McKinley : 

I feel honored by the invitation 3'ou have sent me to take part in the reception to be tendered to the Rev. 
Dr. Talmage in celebration of the twenty-fifth year of his pastorate at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. While it is 
impossible for me to be present, I take occasion to give expression to the great respect and esteem in which I 
hold Dr. Talmage. The American people, irrespective of denominational differences, have a pride in the ability 
and public services of Dr. Talmage. His influence for good, in the direction of public sentiment, extends far 
beyond his own church and his own congregation ; it is felt all over our country, and even beyond the seas. 
Please convey to the Doctor my regards and congratulations. Very truly yours, 



^^UJ^L"^/^-^ 




The Governor of Virginia, Hon. Chas. T. O'Ferrall, wrote : 

Among the clergy of America he is the foremost man of the age, and his influence is felt at almost every 
Christian fireside, while his scholarly ability' and eloquence have won him a world-wide reputation. The compli- 
ment to be conferred upon him is a well-merited one, and is, after all, but another laurel added to the honors of a 
long and useful life. 

The Governor of Wyoming, Hon. John E. Osborn, wrote : 

No name stands higher in the galaxy of great American names than that of Dr. Talmage. No man has 
done more for the lasting benefit of the race than he, and no one has done more for the dissemination of the 
doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, the beautiful religion of the Carpenter of Nazareth, 
than he, and there is, I think, no true American citizen but feels a wave of admiration and love swell in his breast 
at the mention of the great teacher of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 45 

Letter from Joseph Parker : 

I have so olteii expressed my appreciation of Dr. Talmage that I feel it to be quite needless to add one word 
of eulog}-, even in view of the impending celebration of his twenty-fifth pastoral anniversary. I Lave been asked 
to join others in sending a telegram of congratulation, but I do not wish to be one of a number in recognizing an 
event which is so intensely personal. In the realm of religious imagination, power, fertility, and ardour of fancy. 
Dr. Talmage stands in my esteem absolutely without a rival in the Christian pulpit of to-day. It is within my 
certain knowledge that not only is his ministry imaginatively and verbally splendid, but that it carries with it 
converting and elevating power. This is of course the highest tribute which can be paid to any ininistr\- ; and I 
do nothing but the barest justice to a brother minister in thus solemnly and gratefully recording the fact. 
Association with Dr. Talmage is most discouraging to men of smaller capacity and feebler nerve. We can only 
stand back from him and each say, "I, too, am a preacher." I offer him my love, and confidence, and 
gratitude, on the occasion of his Silver Wedding with the church in Brooklyn. 




The Governor of ]\Iichigan, Hon. John P. Rich, wrote : 

While Dr. Talmage has been pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle for the past twenty-fi\e years, he has had 
the nation, and to a large extent the civilized world, for an audience. 

United States Senator James K. Jones wrote : 

The results of his great labors will be felt to the last syllable of recorded time, and his name will be honored 
through all the future as it is loved by those who know him now. 

Bishop John F. Hurst wrote : 

The church in this and all other countries has been enriched by his labors. Many a life has become 
beautiful through his teachings. All classes have shared in the benefactions of his heart and hand. 

Bishop John H. Vincent wrote : 

I rejoice in all successes which crown Dr. Talmage, the brilliant and lo^'al American preacher. 

After more than an hotir spent in reading these congratulator}' tributes, Rev. Charles 
L. Thompson spoke eloquentl)' of Dr. Tahnage's genius, work and influence, followed by 
Murat Halstead, as representative of the press, who in turn was succeeded by Rev. Dr. J. J. 
Lansing. At the conclusion of the latter's remarks Gen. Tracy called for Dr. Talmage, 
who responded to the ovation tendered to him as follows : 



SPEECH OF DR. TALMAGE. 

" Whether to address the presiding officer of this evening as one of the heroes of the 
LTnited States anny and call him General, or as recenth^ a member of presidential cabinet, 
who helped lift the navy from insignificance to a war armament that commands the respect 
of the world, and call him ex-Secretary ; or as one of the brilliant leaders in the American 
court-room and call him attorney-at-law, I am undecided, and so will do neither, but 
address him as Mr. Chairman. God ble.ss you for your kindness in coming here to-night 
to preside over this audience. What in this scene has made the deepest impression upon 



46 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

the mind of this audience I do not know. The most vivid on my mind is an impression 
that has no reference to myself at all. We have been told that religion is a weak thing, fit 
for the weak mind, and an obsolete affair belonging to the ages of superstition. I point to 
the group of illustrious men on this platform to prove that the brain, the learning, the 
eloquence, the splendid manhood of America is on the side of Jesus Christ. If religion 
had been a sham, these are the men who would have found it out. We have in this land 
and on this platform the man who, after filling the office of Secretary of the United States, 
and belonging to two Presidential Cabinets, and pleading in the most important cases that 
ever came before judge or jury, stands now a combination of Edmund Burke and Daniel 
Webster — I mean William M. Evarts. We have been led to-night in prayer b\- the John 
Milton of the American pulpit, like the one after whom I call him, his eye-sight blasted 
by excess of vision, turning aside from the United States Senate to pray for us at the time 
when the Senate most needs his prayers to help them in the struggle with the Wilson bill. 
Georgia sends to us its distinguished citizen, the achievements of his great editorial pen 
now to be eclipsed by his mighty mission in the United States Senate. Henry W. Grady 
and Senator Col quit have passed away, but, thank God, we have in their place Hon. Patrick 
Walsh. On this platform we have a member of another branch of the national legislature, 
but whether he is on the way to gubernatorial or presidential chair I know not, but this I 
•do know : He is our joy and our pride, Hon. Joseph C. Hendrix. But the committee of 
xeception does full honor to my own profession ; and so they invited to this platform a 
minister of the gospel who after rousing the cities of the west with his superb work now 
stands in New York Sabbath by Sabbath telling the sweetest story that was ever told, 
as he only can tell it — Dr. Charles L. Thompson. Boston also must be heard from, 
and Boston is here in the pastor of the most historical pulpit in that city, the Park 
Congregational — my friend of many ^^ears, the Rev. Dr. Lansing. And there is here 
Murat Halstead, our great editor, and one of the grandest acquisitions Brooklyn has ever 
had. Oh, I forgot that this meeting somewhat refers to myself, and that makes me feel 
a little weaker than I ever felt before. A hundred thousand thanks. I suppose I may as 
well make it a million." 

Dr. George W. Bethune, once a great preacher on Brooklyn Heights, was stopping over 
night at a Pennsylvania farm-house. In the morning the Doctor sat at the breakfast table 
alone, for the good housewife felt that was the best way to honor him. And when the 
buckwheat cakes were put upon his plate the good woman stood by him with the molasses 
cup to pour the sweetness on his cakes, and she said to him, ' How will you take this 
molasses on these cakes ? Will you take it crinkle-crankle or all in a puddle ? ' To-night 
to me the sweetness has come in the latter way, and all in a puddle. This is the supreme 
hour of my life. Many emotions stir my soul, but neither the Brooklyn City reception last 
night nor the national and international reception to-night, so far as I know my own heart, 
has created in me one feeling of exultation or pride. It has only stirred in me a profound 
wish and prayer that I might hereafter prove myself worthy of all this kindness. Up till 
forty years of age a man may have ambition for himself, but for the most part after that it 
is ambition for his children ; and I shall hand over to my children in every form that I can 
preserve the memories of last night and to-night. I shall tell them never to forget the men who 
stood on this platform and when the sons of these men come on the stage of action, to seek 
to cheer them as much as their fathers have cheered me. The fact is, that to all of us life 
is a struggle. By kind thoughts and kind words and kind deeds, let us help each other on 
the way and then may we all meet coming up from north and south and east and west, and 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 47 

from both sides of the sea, in our Father's house, where so many of our loved ones are now 
awaiting our arrival. Myself having thanked the gentlemen who have taken part in this 
meeting, I ask this audience, when I shall give them the signal, to rise and take out their 
handkerchiefs and wave them and give three cheers for the illustrious guests of the evening." 

The audience was dismissed with benedictions, but it was not until the early morning 
hours that the Tabernacle was entirely emptied and Dr. Talmage was finally permitted to 
retire. 

The whole meeting seemed an echo of the appreciation expressed by Rev. Charles H. 
Spurgeon, of London, when he wrote to Doctor Talmage on the receipt of a book of 
sermons twent)--three }'ears ago : 

I shall greatly prize the volume you have sent me. The discourses I have read before, but from the giver 
I had not ere this received special greeting. Fellow-soldier, I return your salutation most heartily. The Lord is 
with thee, thou mighty man of valour ! So maj' He ever be with thee till the campaign closes with victory. 

I am indeed glad of your voice. It cheers ine intensely. You love the gospel and believe in something, 
•which some preachers hardlj' do. I feel sure j-ou will give us a full Puritanic theology-. There are those about who 
use the old labels, but the articles are not the same. 

May the Lord win armies of souls to Jesus by you. I am astonished when God blesses me, but somehow I 
should not be so nmch surprised if He blessed you. Indeed I see much to admire in your speech, and feel that 
God will bless it. It shall be as He wills Yours most heartily. 



(j^. 




The meeting seemed also an echo of the appreciation expressed hy Canon Wilberforce 
-when introducing Dr. Talmage, in 1879, to an audience in Southampton, England. The 
Canon remarked : " I used to read Doctor Talmage's sennons, but I have ceased to do so, 
because the temptation to reproduce them is too strong." 

The Silver Jubilee, the magnificent celebration, the splendid tribute, the inter- 
national commemoration of the twenty-fifth year of Dr. Talmage's Brooklyn pastorate, 
was concluded with the Sabbath noon service, May 13, 1894. The immense temple, 
reared with sacrifices and dedicated with reverence, was packed with people who 
came with eagerness and affection to hear the farewell sermon of the beloved preacher^ 
who was to start on the morrow for a tour around the world. Every face in that 
tremendous audience was aglow with blessings, yet sorrow at the early parting showed 
in every eye. Dr. Talmage had been overwhelmed with three days of jubilation, wherein 
he had been made the central figure of an outpouring of Christendom such as no 
other minister in the world's history had ever provoked or received. , But he manifested 
no fatigue, his spirit was even more buoyant under the stimulus of the ovations that 
attested the appreciation and love in which he is held by Christians of every land. Six 
thousand people attended this last service, and twenty-five infants were baptized by his 
hands and blessed by his benediction. 

The subject of his discourse was " A Cheerful Cliurch," and his text was from Solomon's 
Song, " Behold thou art fair, my love," which he treated in a most eloquent manner, 
concluding with such feeling words as to his going away that tears glistened in even.- eye. 

At the conclusion of the sennon Dr. Talmage invited every one forward that they 
might have a farewell international hand.shake, which nearly all persons in the \'ast 
audience accepted, then the benediction was pronounced and while the organist pla}ed the 
Talmage Jubilee March the great gathering was dismi.ssed. 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



God's providence was perhaps never more distinctly manifested than on this occasion, 
for when less than twent)- persons were still in the Tabernacle, lingering to speak a last 
word with their pastor, Mrs. Talmage discovered a tongne of ilame leaping from the 
top of the organ upon which Prof Brown was still playing his " Silver Jubilee March." 
Suppose the fire had broken out a few minutes sooner, when the vast auditorium was 
choked with human beings ! Hearts are sickened by the very thought. 

When Dr. Talmage was 
appealed to by his friends 
to run for his life, he 
showed no excitement, but 
turned into his study to get 
his hat just as several of the 
large false pipes of the great 
organ fell with a mighty 
crash upon the ver\' spot 
where he had a moment 
before been standing. By 
another door he rejoined his 
family, at the sight of whom 
he exclaimed, " Thank God 
all are saved, but the church 
is certainly lost." But he 
was still reluctant to leave 
the Tabernacle, esteeming 
that he might be of service 
to assist some one who had 
not yet escaped, though, 
thanks be to God, the now 
fiery temple contained no 
lingering one. During this 
interval the flaming demons 
were working a swift de- 
struction, and spreading 
with inconceivable rapidity. 
They caught the silver jubi- 
lee bunting and whirled it 
aloft as if it had been made 
of tissue paper. They fast- 
ened their teeth of flame 
upon the ceiling so richly 
decorated and substantial looking, but which, made of papier mache, was as inflammable 
as if it had been saturated with kerosene. A cloud of smoke, black as the wrath of the 
gods, collected about the great and beautiful dome and slowly descended to the floor, masking 
the glorious cathedral windows, shutting out the sunlight which had for the last time lit up 
the cheerful interior of this almost cathedral church, and choking those who were still inside. 
And then with a sudden burst of venom, and with the jingle, far from merry^, of broken 
glass, it burst its way out through roof and window and sent a black and noisome column 




MY TRAVELING COMPANION IN THE JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD. 
REV. FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



49 



far up into the blue-topped sky, and following fast upon the smoke came licking flames, and 
after them a rosy fury. 

The alarm was promptly sounded, but the fire so quickly obtained mastery that human 
power could not save the great Tabernacle nor could the valorous brigade of fighters keep the 
long fingers of flame from grasping adjoining buildings. " Doomed, doomed," was the cry ; 
and so it proved. When the Tabernacle had, within ten minutes' time, become an 
inextinguishable furnace, the magnificent Hotel Regent, filled with guests, became an 
accession to the pyre and with this increase the holocaust was intensified till the fiends of 
fire crackled with glee and whelmed the whole city with lambent ire. It was the most 
extensive conflagration that ever visited Brooklyn, the losses being as follows : 

The Tabernacle, $450,000 

Regent Hotel, 700,000 

Private houses, 72,000 

Summerfield Church 4,000 




Total 

But while the loss of property 
mense, thanks be to God it 
panied by any destruction ol 
injury to any one, though narrow 
were numerous. 

Dr. Talmage has been peculiar 
tunate in respect to his churches, 
been both piirsued and persecuted 
ries of fire, as the follow- 
ing brief record of his 
losses will show : 

In 1869 Dr. Tal- 
mage received, while a 
pastor in Philadelphia, 
a "call" from three 
churches, one in San 
Francisco, another in 
Chicago and the third 
in Brooklyn. After due 
consideration he selected 
Brooklyn as his future 
field of labor. At that 
time the Brooklyn Tabernacle congregation was composed of but a few worshipers — a mere 
handful. The neighborhood, however, was thickly settled. 

The young clergyman began work with his whole heart, and before a jear had passed 
the barnlike edifice in which he and his people met was much too small for the crowds that 
wished to enter it. Accordingly, in 187 1, a new Tabernacle of corrugated sheet iron was 
erected, and that, too, was packed every Sunday. All the seats were free, and the work 
was supported by voluntary' contributions, which were enormous. 

On Sunday morning, December 22, 1872, this building was burned to the grouud. 
When the pastor arrived at the usual hour for beginning service he found his great con- 
gregation watching the conflagration. But, like the Rev. Robert Collyer at the ruins of 
Unity Church in the Chicago fire, he was animated with new vigor, and there by the 
4 



THE GREAT BROOKLYN TABERNACLE BEFORE THE FIRE. 



50 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

blazing timbers, he told his friends that the church just burned had never been large 
enough, and that, by God's providence, they would at once erect another on the ruins. 
Plans were immediately drawn for another, which, when completed, proved to be what at 
that tiine was one of the largest Protestant edifices in America. It was a splendid, spacioiis 
Gothic pile — cathedral-like above and theatre-like in the main body, with a seating capacity 
•of from 5000 to 6000, according to the packed condition of the aisles and space around the 
pulpit, where extra seats accommodated 1000 more on special jubilee occasions. This 
new church, which soon had world-wide fame, was dedicated on January 22, 1874. It soon 
became one of the chief churches of the country, and the centre of evangelical activity in 
Brooklyn. Copies of the sermons delivered in it were sent out broadcast by a special 
syndicate arrangement, and translated into French, German, Italian, Swedish and Russian. 
But this great church, like its predecessor, was doomed to burn. It went up in smoke and 
ashes on October 13, 1889. 

Again the fire broke out on a Sunday morning. Only four blackened walls greeted 
the sorrowing congregation. All was lost — the grand organ, the collection of choice music 
and the big library. From his bed-room window Dr. Talmage saw the wild spectacle, " the 
destruction of the temple of his heart and soul, wherein all his earthly hopes were centred." 
But, as he said in speaking of it, neither he nor his people were dismayed at this new and 
still greater calamity. Once again skillful architects were asked to prepare plans for a new 
Tabernacle, larger and more magnificent than either of the other churches. 

On the morning of October 28, 1890, ground was broken at the northeast corner of 
Clinton and Greene avenues, Brooklyn. Work was pushed with a will, and by the following 
spring the building was ready for worshipers. It was formally opened by Dr. Talmage on 
his return from his famous journey to the Holy Dand, in May of that year, 1891. The 
architects were J. B. Snook & Sons, of Brooklyn, who were credited with accomplishing the 
remarkable task of completing the vast edifice on time. It was this church that burned 
May 13, 1894. It was considered the largest Protestant church in America, and would seat 
5000 persons comfortably. Ou extra occasions, by throwing open the doors leading into 
the Sunday-school annex, 2000 more could find seats in full view and within hearing of the 
preacher. It was called the most imposing church structure in Brookhm, and it cost 
$350,000. 

The stjde of architecture was Norman, solid, massive and imposing, of rich, dark, 
umber-colored granite, with facings of Lake Superior brownstone. The striking character- 
istics of the exterior were a high tower at the corner and two gables on each facade, with 
small towers at the extreme ends of each facade. The corner tower went up 160 feet high 
from the ground to the finials. The church's general form was square, but over the two 
principal entrances was a rounded projection which was carried up two stories. The interior 
was in the form of an amphitheatre. There were two galleries, and on the Waverly 
avenue side a commodious lecture-room and reading-room. On each side of the main 
auditorium were Bible and class-rooms, separated from the main room b}- sliding doors that 
could be pushed aside on special occasions, making one great room. There were also two 
large reception-rooms near the lobbies, for the exclusive use of strangers and visitoi-s. The 
lobbies and passageway's were spacious — none less than eight feet wide. There were no 
winding staircases. The idea was to have the church easy of entrance and egress. It has 
been specially arranged to prevent "choking" in case of a panic by fire, or accidents of 
any kind. Electric lights were used in every part of the structure. The windows were of 
cathedral glass, richly stained, and the much-praised rose window was considered particularly 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 51 

■fine. Of the interior it was written that the upholstery in the pews was " in warm, cheerful 
colors, and the prevailing effect (in harmony with the fine roof timbers in their natural 
colors) of orange and subdued tints." In every respect it was a magnificent building, 
original in design and a very model of adaptation to congregational uses. But it too was 
a shining mark for the demons of pyrotechny, who, despite its consecration, devoured the 
sacred edifice, and again left Dr. Talmage churchless. It is consolement to know, as a New 
York newspaper said the day following the fire : " Flames have destroyed the Tabernacle 
of Dr. Talmage, but fire can never destroy the splendor of his career." 

Dr. Talmage was interviewed in the afternoon of the day of the fire, and his 
indomitable spirit, profound and unswerving faith in God, and unchangeable cheerfulness 
of heart are manifest in his answers. Said he : " It is a great disaster, a great disaster, but 
the mercy of God overtowers the disaster." 

" You wish for my version of the catastrophe?" he said. " Here it is : At the close of 
the church service this morning I was shaking hands with a great multitude of people at 
the foot of the pulpit platform. I was about through, and went down the body of the 
church to speak to my wife, who was standing there. She immediately called my attention 
to a fire that was spouting from the top of the altar. When I saw it was under full 
headwa}', my first impulse was to look around and see who was there in the church. To 
my delight there were but about twenty. I said to myself, there are twenty people and 
twenty-five doors, and every one will escape. I then went over the shoulder of the burning 
platform and entered my study. Then I thought, ' Is it manly to run ? ' and continued 
walking up and down the study. I had just made up my mind to walk out and see if 
every one had escaped, when a New York friend rushed in and said : ' Get out ! Get out ! 
Mr. Talmage, you must leave at once ! ' We went out through the Greene avenue door 
and walked around to the front entrance, from which place I could see the fire blazing, and 
knew that the church was doomed." 

In spite of his calm manner. Dr. Talmage was deeply affected, and tears came into his 
eyes at the recollection of that last moment in the monument he had reared. 

" Yes," he repeated, " the mercy of God overtowers the disaster. If this had occurred 
half an hour before it did there would have been the calamit}^ of the century. There were 
at least 6000 persons packed into the church and lecture-room, and in the panic which 
must needs have ensued many would have been trampled under foot. If it had occurred 
during the Sunday-school hours God knows what horrors would have ensued. While the 
calamity has been infinite, the mercy has likewise been infinite. 

" Personally, I feel not one iota disheartened. I never had more faith in God, or a 
brighter hope for the future. As nearly as I can find out, the church officers feel the same 
way. It is a long procession of church disasters that is inexplicable. It may be likened to a 
family in which four or five children die of scarlet fever. You can't explain, and yoti just 
accept the facts. It's the same with the church. The matter is a niysterj' which I adjourn 
to the next world. I do not try to explain, but just bow submissively to the nierc>- of the 
Lord. 

" As far as I can learn, there were no fatal accidents. Howe\xr, two of our trustees, 
Thomas Pitbladdo and T. G. Matthews, had very narrow escapes from death. The}-, with 
other trustees, were in a i-oom in the turret, and their first intimation of danger was from 
smoke that filled the room. Their escape was providential. 

'' I believe also that Elder Lawrence crawled out through the smoke on his hands and 
knees." 



52 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



When asked his theory as to the cause of the fire, Dr. Tahiiage said : " Electricity 
beyond a doubt. That is something that is only partly harnessed, and even when bridled 
breaks its harness. I am confident there was a misarrangement of wires. Electricity 
destroyed our other church, and I am confident it did this one. 

" What is the meaning of the three fires which have destroyed Brooklyn Tabernacle ? 
As I leave, people in many lands are discussing that question, for telegrams from across the 
Atlantic, as well as from many parts of this country, show that the fiery news had leaped 
every whither. Three vast structures dedicated to God and the work of trying to make 
the world better, gone down, and all this within a few years. They tvere well built as to 
permanence and durability. All the talk about these buildings as mere fire-traps is the 
usual cant, for there is as much secular cant as religious cant. Have you heard in the last 




GRAND CAXOX OF 



HF COLORADO. 

forty years of any church, or any hall, or any theatre which, after destruction, was not 
called a fire-trap ? Tliat charge always makes a lively opening for any description of a fire. 
There have been no better structures, secular or religious, put up in the last twenty-five 
years than the three Brooklyn Tabernacles, and the modes of egress from them so ample 
that the thousands of worshipers assembled in any of them could be put safely on the 
street inside of five minutes. The fact is that there is nothing in this world incombustible. 
When the great Chicago and Boston fires took place they burned up stone and iron. The 
human race will go on building inconsumable churches, and inconsumable banks, and 
inconsumable storehouses, and inconsumable cities, and then all will be consumed in the 
world's last fire. 

" Builders, who had large experience and established reputation, pronounced the 
Brooklyn Tabernacles perfect structures. But what is the meaning of the three fires ? 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 53 

There may be a Inindred different lessons learned b}- a hundred different j^eople and legiti- 
mate lessons. As for myself, I adjourn most of the meaning to the next world. We will 
learn there in two minutes more than we can find out here in fifty years. With that antici- 
pation, mysteries do not often bother me. 

"One reason for these consecutive disasters ma}- be that the patience of the best people 
in the world, the members of Brooklyn Tabernacle, was to be perfected. ' Purified by 
fire.' I\Iighty discipline for one of the Lord's hosts. Whether I ever meet them on earth 
or not, it will be a theme of heavenly reminiscence. We shall talk it all over, the story of 
the three fires. 

"Another reason why the last church went down may have been that some of us were idoliz- 
ing the building, and the Lord will not allow idolatr}-. The house was such a Midsummer 
Night's Dream of beauty. Enchantment lifted in galleries and sprung in arches and glori- 
fied in the light which came through windows touching it with their deftest fingers. The 
acoustics so rare that thousands of ears were in easy reach of common accentuation. An 
organ which was a hallelujah set up in pipes and banked in keys, waiting for a musician's 
manipulation, that would lead the congregational song as an archangel might lead heaven. 
Glorious organ ! When it died down into the ashes of that fire, perhaps its soul went np 
where Handel and Haydn began to play on it. The most superb audience-room that I 
ever gazed on or ever expect to see, until I enter the Temple of the Sun. On one memorial 
wall of that building, a stone which I had rolled down from Mount Calvary, where our 
Lord died, and two tables of stone that were sawed off from Mount Sinai, and brought on 
camels across the desert by my arrangement, and a part of Paul's pulpit, which the Queen 
of Greece allowed me, from Mars Hill. Architecture so chaste, so grand, so appropriate, so 
suggestive, so stupendous ! One of the doxologies of heaven alighted. Well, perhaps we 
thought too much of it. When we think too much of our children, the Lord takes them, 
and when we think too much of our church, the Lord summarily removes it. 

"I suppose another reason for the departure of that house was that it had done its work. 
Church buildings, like individuals, accomplish what they were built for and then go. One 
person lives ninety years, another forty jears, another three years, and when God takes an 
individual, whether at ninety, or forty, or three years, his mission is ended. This last 
church stood three 3'ears, and any person who knows what multitudes have there assembled, 
and what transactions for eternity have there taken place, will admit that it was well to 
build it, even if we had known at the start that it would only last from 1891 to 1894. 

"Another reason why I think this last church went down was to keep me humble. 
The Lord had widened my work through Christendom, and with two receptions the week 
before the conflagration, the one a city reception presided over by our mayor, and the other 
a national and international reception presided over by one of the chief men of the nation, 
who had recently stepped from the Presidential cabinet, and the occasion honored by 
addresses and letters and cablegrams from men of world-wide fame in Church and State, and 
the whole scene brilliant beyond description and in compliment to myself, who was 
brought up a farmer's boy, there was danger that I might become puffed up and my sonl 
weakened for future work. I did not yet feel any stirrings of that sort, and had only felt 
an humble gratitude for what had been said and done by friends, transatlantic and 
cisatlantic, but L had ordered full reports of the meeting laid aside for future perusal, and I 
had engaged the fleetest stenographer I know of to take down every word, from the opening 
doxolog\- of the first reception to the benediction of the last reception, and sometime, when 
less busy, I would take in all the eloquence and kindness and splendor of that memorable 



54 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



week. What might have been the result upon myself I know not. I have seen upon 
others the withering effect of human praise. A cold chill of the world's neglect is no 
more destructive than the sunstroke from too much heat of popular approval. The disaster 
may have been needed, and it came so close upon the adulation that it acted as an ever- 
lasting prevention. In the light of that awful blaze of that Sabbath in May, 1894, no self- 
sufBciency could stand a second. 

"Another reason for the fires I think is that somehow, and in a way that I know not, my 
opportunities are to widen. After each of the other fires new doors were open. I prayer- 
fully expect that such will be the sequence of the last conflagration. 

"Will the Brooklyn Tabernacle be rebuilt ? I know not. What or when or where 
shall be my work I cannot even guess, nor have I the least anxiety. Nothing but an 
inspired utterance of the Bible could bear such repetition as I have for the last twelve days 
given to the words of the Psalmist : " The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice." 

No lamentations nor discouraging wails escaped the lips of this most optimistic of men ; 
like Job, he submitted to whatever it was the will of God to send ; that as rain falls alike 
upon the just and the unjust, so does adversity know no distinction in its visits, and he who 
loveth the L,ord should therefore accept whatsoever it seemeth good to Him to send. 
Sometimes the rod that chasteneth buds forth with blessings ; sometimes the heavy yoke 
becomes a crown ; sometimes the burden is a cross. And in this divine spirit of resignation 
Dr. Talmage watched the great Tabernacle, built with so much effort, dedicated with so 
much reverence, sustained by so much good, beautiful with so mxich promise, crumble into 
ashes, dissolve forever in a fiery embrace of the red wraith whose breath is destruction. " The 
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord." 




The Earth Girdled. 




CHAPTER I. 

TRANSCONTINENTAL. 

T half past 

nine o'clock, 

on the night 

of May 14, 
1894, I descend the front 
steps of my home in Brook- 
lyn, New York. The sen- 
sation of leaving for a 
journey around the world 
is not all made up of 
bright anticipation. The 
miles to be traveled are 
so numerous, the seas to 
be crossed are so treacher- 
ous, the peradventures are 
so great, that the solemni- 
ties outnumbered the ex- 
pectations. My family 
accompany me to the rail- 
way train ; — will we all 
meet again? The cli- 
matic changes, the ships, 
the shoals, the hurricanes, 
the bridges, the cars, the 
epidemics, the possibili- 
ties, hinder any positive- 
ness of prophec}'. I come 
down the front steps of 
my home ; will I ever 
again ascend them ? The 
remark made by Honor- 
able William M. Evarts 
a few evenings before, at 
the public reception on 
the conclusion of my 
twenty-fifth year of Brooklyn pastorate, though uttered in facetiousness, was consolatory. 
He said : " Dr. Talmage ought to realize that if he goes around the world, he will come 

(55) 




T.\KEN ON HIS JOrRNEY AROUND THE WORLD, JULY 27, 1S94, .\T .SYDNEY, 
ATSTKALIA. 



56 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

out at the same place from which he started." Ma}' the God who holds the winds in one 
fist, and the ocean in the hollow of the other hand, protect us. 

I leave home while the timbers of our destroyed church are still smoking. Three 
great churches have been consumed. Wh}- this series of huge calamities, I know not. Had 
I not made all the arrangements for departure, and been assured by the trustees of 
my church that they would take all the responsibilities upon themselves, I would have 
postponed my intended tour, or adjourned it forever ; but all whom I have consulted tell me 
now is the time to go, and so I turn my face toward the Golden Gate. 

I do not leave America because there are not wonders enough to look at between the 
Atlantic and Pacific. Before any one leaves this country for a toiir around the world he 
ought to see the Yosemite, Yellowstone Park, Mammoth Cave of Kentucky and Lookout 
Mountain. On your way across the continent sweep round by this last wonder of the 
planet. I took a carriage and wound up Ivookout Mountain. Up, up, up ! Standing there 
on the tip-top rock I saw five States of the Union. Scene stupendous and overwhelming ! 
One almost is disposed to take off his hat in the presence of what seems to be the grandest 
prospect on this continent. There is Missionary Ridge, the beach against which the red 
"billows of Federal and Confederate courage surged and broke. There are the Blue 
Mountains of North and Soirth Carolina. With strain of vision, there is Kentucky, there 
is Virginia. At our foot, Chattanooga and Chickamauga, the pronunciation of which proper 
names will thrill ages to come with thoughts of valor and desperation and agon)'. Looking 
•each way and any way from the top of that mountain, earthworks, earthworks — the beautiful 
Tennessee winding through the valley, curling and coiling around, making letter " S " after 
letter " S," as if that letter stood for shame, that brothers should have gone into massacre 
with each other, while God and nations looked on. I have stood on Mount Washington, 
and on the Sierra Nevadas, and on the Alps ; but I never saw so far as from the top of 
Lookout Mountain. I looked back thirty-one years, and I saw rolling up the side of that 
mountain the smoke of Hooker's storming part}- while the foundations of eternal rock 
■quaked with the cannonade. Four j^ears of internecine strife seemed to come back, and 
without any chronological order I saw the events : Norfolk Navy Yard on fire ; Fort Sumter 
on fire ; Charleston on fire ; Chambersburg on fire ; Columbia, South Carolina, on fire ; 
Richmond on fire. And I saw Ellsworth fall, and Lyon fall, and McPherson fall, and Bishop 
Polk fall, and Stonewall Jackson fall. And I saw hundreds of grave trenches afterward cut 
into two great gashes across the land, the one for the dead men of the North, the other for 
the dead men of the South. And mj' ear as well as my eye was quickened, and I 
heard the tramp of enlisting armies, and I heard the explosion of mines and gunpowder 
magazines, and the crash of fortification walls, and the " swamp angel," and the groan of 
•dying hosts falling across the pulseless heart of other dying hosts. And I saw still further 
out, and I saw on the banks of the Penobscot and the Oregon and the Ohio and the 
Hudson and the Roanoke and the Yazoo and the Alabama, widowhood and orphanage and 
childlessness — some exhausted in grief and others stark and mad, and I said, " Enough, 
enough have I seen into the past from the top of Lookout Mountain. O God ! show me 
"the future." And standing there, it was revealed to me. And I looked out and I saw great 
populations from the North moving South, and great populations from the South mo\-ing 
North, and I found that their footsteps obliterated the hoof-mark of the war chargers. 
And I saw the Angel of the Lord of hosts standing in the national cemeteries, trumpet in 
Tiand, as much as to say, " I will wake these soldiers from their long encampment." And I 
looked and I saw such snowy harvests of cotton and siich golden harvests of corn as I had 



J 



58 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

•never imagined, and I fonnd that the earthworks were down, and the gnn-carriages down, 
and the war barracks were all down, and I saw the river winding through the valley, 
making letter " S " after letter " S " — no more " S " for shame, but " S " for salvation. And 
.as I saw that all the weapons of war were turned into agricultural implements I was alarmed, 
.and I said, " Is this safe?" And standing there on the tip-top rock of Lookout Mountain, 
I was so near heaven that I heard two voices which some way slipped from the gate, and 
they sang, " Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war 
.any more." And I recognized the two voices. They were the voices of two Christian 
soldiers who fell at Shiloh ; the one a Federal, the other a Confederate. And they were 
brothers ! 

After you have visited that historical place you had better come up by the Mammoth 
Cave. With lanterns and torches and a guide, we went down into that cave. You may 
walk fourteen miles and see no sunlight. It is a wonderful place. Some parts the roof of 
the cave a hundred feet high. The grottos filled with weird echoes, cascades falling from 
invisible height to invisible depth. Stalagmites rising up from the floor of the cave — 
.•stalactites descending from the roof of the cave, joining each other, and making pillars of 
the Almighty's sculpturing. There are rosettes of amethyst in halls of gypsum. As the 
guide carries his lantern ahead of yoii, the shadows have an appearance supernatural and 
ispectral. The darkness is fearful. Two people, getting lost from their guide onl}' for a few 
hours, years ago, were demented, and for years sat in their insanity. You feel like holding 
your breath as you walk across the bridges that seem to span the bottomless abyss. The 
guide throws his calcium light down into the caverns, and the light rolls and tosses from 
Tock to rock, and from depth to depth, making at every plunge a new revelation of the 
awful power that could have made such a place as that. A sense of suffocation comes upon 
you as you think that you are two hundred and fifty feet in a straight line from the sunlit 
■surface of the earth. The guide, after a while, takes you into what is called the " Star 
■Chamber," and then he says to you: "Sit here," and then he takes the lantern and goes 
■down under the rocks, and it gets darker and darker, until the night is so thick that the 
hand an inch from the eye is unobservable. And then, by kindling one of the. lanterns, 
and placing it in a cliff of the rock, there is a reflection cast on the dome of the cave, and 
there are stars coming out in constellations — a brilliant night heavens — and you involuntarih' 
•exclaim : " Beautiful ! beautiful ! " Then he takes the lantern down in other depths of the 
■cavern, and wanders on, and wanders off, until he conies up from behind the rocks gradually, 
and it seems like the dawn of the morning and it gets brighter and brighter. The guide 
is a skilled ventriloquist, and he imitates the voices of the morning, and soon the gloom is 
all gone, and you stand congratulating yourself over the weird and enchanting spectacle. 

Before taking steamer at the Pacific coast, you ought certainly to visit the two 
National Parks — Yosemite and Yellowstone Park. Who that has seen Yosemite and the 
adjoining Californian regions can think of them without having his blood tingle? Trees 
now standing there that were old when Christ lived ! These monarchs of foliage reigned 
before Csesar or Alexander, and the next thousand years will not shatter their sceptre ! 
They are the masts of the continent, their canvas spread on the winds, while the old ship 
bears on its way through the ages ! 

That valley of the Yosemite is eight miles long and a half-mile wide and three 
thousand feet deep. It seems as if it had been the meaning of Omnipotence to crowd into 
.as small a place as possible some of the most stupendous scenery of the world. Some of 
those cliffs you do not stop to measure by feet, for they are literally a mile high. Steep so 



6o 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



that neither foot of man nor beast ever scaled them, they stand in everlasting defiance. If 
Jehovah has a throne on earth, these are its white pillars ! Standing down in this greac 
chasm of the valley, you look up, and yonder is Cathedral Rock, vast, gloomy minster built 
for the silent worship of the mountains ! Yonder is Sentinel Rock, 3270 feet high, bold, 
solitary, standing guard among the ages, its top seldom touched, until a bride, one Fourth 
of July, mounted it and planted there the national standard, and the people down in the 
valley looked up and saw the head of the mountain turbaned with Stars and Stripes I 
Yonder are the Three Brothers, 4000 feet high ; Cloud's Rest, North and South Dome, and 
the heights never captured save by the fierj^ bayonets of the thunder-storm ! No pause for 
the eye ; no stopping-place for the mind. Mountains hurled on mountains. Mountains in 
the wake of mountains. Mountains flanked by mountains. Mountains split. Mountains 
ground. Mountains fallen. Mountains triumphant. As though Mont Blanc and the 
Adirondacks and Mount Washington were here uttering themselves in one magnificent 




MA.IN STREET, S\LT LAKE CITY, WHFRF THE CHIEFS OF MOKMONISM CAME TO MEET ME. 

chorus of rock and precipice and waterfall. Sifting and dashing through the rocks, the 
water comes down. The Bridal Veil Fall so thin you can see the face of the mountain 
behind it. Yonder is Yosemite Fall, dropping 2634 feet, sixteen times greater descent 
than that of Niagara. These waters dashed to death on the rocks, so that the white spirit 
of the slain waters ascending in robe of mist seeks the heavens. Yonder is Nevada Fall, 
plunging 700 feet, the v/ater in arrows, the water in rockets, the water in pearls, the water 
in amethysts, the water in diamonds. That cascade flings down the rocks enough jewels 
to array all the earth in beauty, and rushes on until it drops into a very hell of waters, the 
smoke of their torment ascending forever and ever. 

But the most wonderful part of this American continent is the Yellowstone Park. 

My visit there made upon me an impression that will last forever. After all poetry 
has exhausted itself, and all the Morans and Bierstadts and the other enchanting artists 




(6.) 



62 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

have completed their canvas, there will be other revelations to make, and other stories 
of its beauty and wrath, splendor and agony, to be recited. The Yellowstone Park is the 
geologist's paradise. By cheapening of travel may it become the nation's playground ! In 
some portions of it there seems to be the anarch}' of the elements. Fire and water, and 
the vapor born of that marriage terrific. Geyser cones or hills of crystal that have been 
over five thousand years growing ! In places the earth, throbbing, sobbing, groaning, 
quaking with aqueous paroxysm. At the expiration of every sixty-five minutes one of the 
geysers tossing its boiling water 185 feet in the air and then descending into swinging 
rainbows. Caverns of pictured walls large enough for the sepulchre of the human race. 
Formations of stone in shape and color of calla lily, of heliotrope, of rose, of cowslip, of 
sunfiower, and of gladiolus. Sulphur and arsenic and oxide of iron, with their delicate 
pencils, turning the hills into a Luxembourg or a Vatican picture-gallery. The so-called 
Thanatopsis Geyser, exquisite as the Bryant poem it was named after, and Evangeline 
Geyser, lovely as the Longfellow heroine it commemorates. 

Wide reaches of stone of intermingled colors, blue as the sky, green as the foliage, 
crimson as the dahlia, white as the snow, spotted as the leopard, tawny as the lion, grizzly 
as the bear, in circles, in angles, in stars, in coronets, in stalactites, in stalagmites. Here 
and there are petrified growths, or the dead trees and vegetation of other ages, kept through 
a process of natural embalmment. In some places waters as innocent and smiling as a 
child making a first attempt to walk from its mother's lap, and not far off as foaming and 
frenzied and ungovernable as a maniac in struggle with his keepers. 

But after you have wandered along the geyserite enchantment for days, and begin to 
feel that there can be nothing more of interest to see, you suddenly come upon the 
peroration of all majesty and grandeur, the Grand Canon. It is here that it seems to me 
— and I speak it with reverence — Jehovah seems to have surpassed Himself It seems a 
great gulch let down into the eternities. Here, hung up and let down, and spread abroad 
are all the colors of land and sea and sky. Upholstering of the Lord God Almighty. Best 
work of the Architect of worlds. Sculpturing by the Infinite. Masonry by an omnipotent 
trowel. Yellow ! You never saw yellow unless you saw it there. Red ! You never saw 
red unless you saw it there. Violet ! You never saw violet unless you saw it there. 
Triumphant banners of color. In a cathedral of basalt. Sunrise and Sunset married by the 
setting of rainbow ring. 

Gothic arches, Corinthian capitals, and Egyptian basilicas built before human 
architecture was born. Huge fortifications of granite constructed before war forged its 
first cannon. Gibraltars and Sebastopols that never can be taken. Alhambras, where kings 
of strength and queens of beauty reigned long before the first earthly crown was empearled. 
Thrones on which no one but the King of heaven and earth ever sat. Fount of waters at 
which the hills are baptized, while the giant cliffs stand round as sponsors. For thousands 
of years before that scene was unveiled to human sight, the elements were busy, and the 
geysers were hewing away with their hot chisel, and glaciers were pounding with their 
cold hammers, and hurricanes were cleaving with their lightning strokes, and hailstones 
giving the finishing touches, and after all these forces of nature had done their best, in our 
century the curtain dropped, and the world had a new and divinely inspired revelation. The 
Old Testament written on papyrus, the New Testament written on parchment, and this last 
Testament written on the rocks. 

Hanging over one of the cliffs, I looked off until I could not get my breath ; then 
retreating to a less exposed place I looked down again. Down there is a pillar of rock that 



■64 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



in certain conditions of the atmosphere looks like a pillar of blood. Yonder are fifty feet 
■of etnerald on a base of five hundred feet of opal. Wall of chalk resting on pedestals of 
beryl. Turrets of light tumbling on floors of darkness. The brown brightening into 
golden. Snow of crystal melting into fire of carbuncle. Flaming red cooling into russet. 
Cold blue warming into saffron. Dull gray kindling into solferino. Morning twilight 
flushing midnight shadows. Auroras crouching among rocks. 

Yonder is an eagle's nest on a shaft of basalt. Through an eye-glass we see among it 
the young eagles, but the stoutest arm of our group cannot hurl a stone near enough to 
disturb the feathered domesticity. Yonder are heights that would be chilled with horror 
but for the warm robe of forest foliage with which they are enwrapped. Altars of worship 
at which nations might kneel. Domes of chalcedou}- on temples of porphyry. See all this 
carnage of color up and down the cliffs ; it must have been the battlefield of the war of the 




BROADMOOR CASINO AND CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN', COLORADO SPRINGS. 

elements ! Here are all the colors of the wall of heaven ; neither the sapphire, nor the 
chrysolite, nor the topaz, nor the jacinth, nor the amethyst, nor the jasper, nor the twelve 
gates of twelve pearls, wanting. If spirits bound from earth to heaven could pass up by 
way of this canon, the dash of heavenly beauty would not be so overpowering. It would 
only be from glory to glory. Ascent through such earthly scenery, in which the crystal is 
so bright, would be fit preparation for the " sea of glass mingled with fire." 

Standing there in the Grand Canon of the Yellowstone Park, for the most part we 
held our peace, but after a while it flashed upon me with such power I could not help but 
say to my comrades : " What a Hall this would be for the last Judgment !" See that 
mighty cascade with the rainbows at the foot of it ! Those waters congealed and transfixed 
with the agitations of that day, what a place they would make for the shining feet of the 
Judge of quick and dead ! And those rainbows look now like the crowns to be cast at His 
feet. At the bottom of this great canon is a floor on which the nations of the earth might 



66 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



stand, and all up and down these galleries of rock the nations of heaven might sit. And 
what reverberation of archangels' trumpet there would be through all these gorges and 
from all these caverns and over all these heights. Why should not the greatest of all the 
days the world shall ever see close amid the grandest scenery Omnipotence ever built ? 

Oh, the sweep of the American continent ! Sailing up Puget Sound, I said, " This is 
the Mediterranean of America." Visiting Portland and Tacoma and Seattle and Victoria 
and Fort Townsend and Vancouver, and other cities of the northwest region, I thought to 
myself: These are the Bostons, New Yorks, Charlestons and Savannahs of the Pacific 
coast. But after all, I found that I had seen only a part of the American continent, for 




GRAND CANON OF THE COI.ORAI 



Alaska is as far west of San Francisco as the coast of Maine is east of it, so that the central 
city of the American continent is San Francisco. 

Six times before this have I crossed the American Continent, and I ha\-e seen the sun 
rise from the golden cradle of the eastern sky and seen him buried beneath the pomp of 
the western horizon. Thi'ee girths have been put aroiind the American Continent ; the 
Northern Pacific, the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific. All these girths have been 
tightened, and the buckles are moving ft-om one puncture to another until the continent is 
less and less in circumference. When I first crossed it, it took fully seven days. Instead of 
the elegant dining cars of to-day, we stopped at restaurants with table covers indescribable, 
for they had on them layers of other strata of breakfasts insulting in appearance. The first 
time I ever saw Judge Field, of the United States Supreme Court, was at one of these tables 
on the Rockv Mountains. 




DKVir.'s SLiiMC. \vi';iii;u ca.nc 
A niisnaiiK-il |)lace, for Salaii inner liail aiivUiiinj 



CHAPTER II. 



ACROSS THE CONTINENT. 




UR journey across the continent was prosperous. One day, however, was bounded 
on one side by a broken bridge and on the other by an avalanche of rocks. 
Before rising in the morning the Pullman sleeper gave a half dozen angry 
jerks, showing that we were derailed, or that the track was deranged. The 
train halted, arid it was found that a bridge had been washed loose by a mountain 
torrent, and the track was crooked and uneven and ready to fall. But it held us until 
we got over. We all stood and looked at the broken bridge and felt thankful to have 
crossed without damage. Indeed that broken bridge attracted more of our attention 




THB BREAKING RAILROAD BRIDGE THAT WE PASSED OVER. 

than the hundreds of faithful bridges that had put us across the chasms, and those few 
crooked rails, than the two thousand miles of track that had kept straight while we 
passed over it. So it is in all kinds of life, one crooked man excites more attention 
than a hundred thousand who preserve their integrity or maintain their usefulness, and 
■o.ne man who breaks down under the heavy pressure of life is more remarked upon than 
whole communities of men who stand firm and true, though long trains of disaster roll 

(68) 



THE WORLD AS vSEEN TO-DAY. 69 

over them. Thousands of homes moving on quietly and happily make not so much 
excitement as one family derailed by infelicity, or gone down the divorce embankment. 
Tens of thousands of banks, of insurance companies, of monetary institutions day by day 
causing no remark, but one absconding cashier converges all the pens and all the types 
and all the eyes of a nation upon the one recalcitrant. Thousands of consecrated men are 
preaching the Gospel and doing their work year after year, and nothing especial is said of 
them, but some man in canonicals gets off the track about who wrote the Pentateuch or 
about the miracles, or about immortality, and all Christendom is shaken. The theological 
professors who, during the last fifteen years, have become famous would never have been 
heard of, if they had not got off the track. It was not an excess of brain or consecration 
that made the disturbance, but the big jolt they gave the churches. A sudden wash-out 
loosened the pier of one of the bridges. The day in Colorado of which I spoke as opened 
with a disrupted bridge, closed with a descent of rocks directly across our iron way. After 
several hours of attempt by the railroad men to remove the obstruction the mountains 
roared with an explosion. What lever and wedge and crowbar failed to do, powder 
accomplished, and the rocks which had rolled down from one side the gorge, rolled over 
to the other. The saying that the age of miracles is passed is an untrue saying. Every 
mile of the great transcontinental railroad is a miracle, yea twice a miracle, a miracle of 
Divine power that heaved up the mountains, and a miracle of human engineering by which 
they were gashed and tunneled. But do you know what in some respects is the most 
remarkable thing between the Atlantic and Pacific ? It is the figure of a cross on a mountain 
in Colorado. It is called the " Mount of the Holy Cross." A horizontal crevice filled with 
perpetual snow, and a perpendicular crevice filled with snow, but both the horizontal line 
and the perpendicular line so marked, so bold, so significant, so unmistakable that all who 
pass in the daytime within many miles are compelled to see it. There are some figures, 
some contours, some mountain appearances that you gradually make out after your attention 
is called to them. So a man's face on the rocks in the White Mountains. So a maiden's 
form cut in the granite of the Adirondacks. So a city in the morning clouds. Yet you 
have to look under the pointing of your friend or guide for some time before you can see 
the similarity. But the first instant you glance at this side of the mountain in Colorado 
you cry out " A cross ! A cross ! " Do you say that this geological inscription just happens 
so? No! nothing in this world just happens so. That cross on the Colorado Mountain 
is not a human device, or an accident of nature, or the freak of an earthquake. The hand 
of God cut it there and set it up for the nation to look at. Whether set up there in rock 
before the cross of wood was set up on the bluflF back of Jerusalem, or set at some time since 
that assassination, I believe the Creator meant it to suggest the most notable event in all 
the history of this planet, and He hung it there over the heart of this continent to indicate 
that the only hope for this nation is in the Cross on which our Immanuel died. The clouds 
were vocal at our Saviour's birth, the rocks rent at His martyrdom, why not the walls of 
Colorado bear the record of the crucifixion ? I take it that this engraving on one of the 
most conspicuous places of the American continent means that this country- belongs to 
Christ, and that He will yet take po.sse.ssion of all of it. Human device has baptized with 
Satanic nomenclature much of the scenery between the Atlantic and Pacific, and some of 
the rocks are called the " Devil's Pulpit," and the " Devil's Saw ]\Iill," and the " Devil's 
Spinning Wheel," and the " Devil's Slide," and is it not high time that the world finds out 
that the Devil is as poor now as when on the top of the Temple, and not owning an acre of 
real estate, he offered Christ the kingdoms of this world, and tliat instead of the human and 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



71 



blasphemous assigning of this or that part of the continent to Dialnihis, we take this 
high-iip and stupendous sign on the Mount of the Hoi)- Cross in Colorado as t\-pical of the 
fact that to Christ belongs this continent ? 

I closed this journey across the continent at the gates of the International Fair at San 
Francisco. Last autumn Mr. De Young, a great leader in California affairs, was seated in 
a room in Chicago, and a foreigner said he would like to make another exhibit of his 
country's fabrics before leaving America. Mr. De Young retired to his room and with his 
pencil began to calculate the possibility of making a success of a Midwinter Fair in San 
Francisco. Believing that it could be done he called together some prominent Californians, 
and a large subscription of money was made, and the mammoth undertaking was set 
on foot. Considering the short time that was allowed for the arrangements, and that no 
Congressional aid was voted, it is the most wonderful Fair ever held on this continent. The 




CHINATOWN, SAN FRANCISCO, AS .SHOWN ME BV THE CITY AUTHORITIKS. 

architecture, the fountains, the statuary, the fruits for size and abundance and lu.sciousne.ss 
unparalleled, and the immensity of the Fair makes it one of the great poems of the century. 
The day I visited it was the National Memorial Day, commemorative of those fallen in 
the battles of our civil war, and at the same time it was a holiday. I had been invited by 
the officers of the Fair to deliver the oration, and so after a banquet given to me by the 
Dii'ector-General, I confronted an audience crowded almost beyond endurance with the 
story of the prowess and the self-sacrifice of those who died for the country, and concluded 
by saying : 

The o^reatest day I ever saw was when some of you were present, the day when the 
armies, returned from our civil war, passed in review at Washington. I care not whether 
von were a Northern man or a Southern man, you could not have looked on withoiit tears. 
God knew that the day was stupendous, and He cleared the heavens of cloud and mist and 



72 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

chill, and sprung the blue sky as a triumphal arch for the returning warriors to pass under. 
From Arlington Heights the spring foliage shook out its welcome as the hosts came ov-er 
the hills, and the sparkling waters of the Potomac tossed their gold to the feet of the 
battalions, as they came to the Long Bridge and in almost interminable line passed over. 
The Capitol, for whose defence these men had fought, never seemed so majestic as that 
morning, snowy white, looking down upon the tides of men that came surging on, billow 
after billow. Darius and Xerxes saw no such hosts as those that marched in our three great 
armies of Potomac, Tennessee and Georgia. Those ancient rulers fought for fame ; these 
were the heroes of the Union. Passing in silence, yet I heard in every step the thunder of 
conflicts through which they had waded, and seemed to see dripping from their smoke- 
blackened flags the blood of our country's mart^-rs. For the best part of two days we sat 
and watched the filing on of what seemed endless ranks ; brigade after brigade ; division 
after division ; host after host ; rank beyond rank ; ever moving, ever passing, marching, 
marching! Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! These foirght in the Wilderness. Those rode in 
lightning stirrups behind cavalry Sheridan. These men were at Chattanooga. Those 
stood on Lookout Mountain. These followed their captain from Atlanta to the sea, holding 
the same flag, lifting the same sword, marching, marching. Tramp ! Tramp ! Tramp ! 
Thousands after thousands ; battery front ; arms shouldered ; columns solid ; shoulder to 
shoulder ; wheel to wheel ; charger to charger ; nostril to nostril ; commanders on horses 
with mane entwined with roses and necks enchained with garlands ; fractious at the shouts 
that ran along the line, increasing from the clapping of children clothed in white, standing 
on the steps of the Capitol, to the tumultuous vociferations of two hundred thousand 
of enraptured people crying Huzza ! Huzza ! Gleaming muskets ; thundering parks of 
artillery ; rumbling pontoon wagons ; ambulances from whose wheels seemed to sound out 
the groan of the crushed and the dying whom they had carried. These men came from 
balmy Minnesota. Those from Illinois prairie. These were often hummed to sleep by the 
pines of Oregon. Those were New England lumbermen. These came from the Golden 
Gate of the Pacific. Those came out of the coal shafts of Pennsylvania. Side by side, in 
one great cause consecrated, through fire and storm and darkness, brothers in peril on their 
way home from Chancellorsville and Kenesaw Mountain and Fredericksburg. In lines that 
seemed infinite, the}- pass on. We gazed and wept and wondered, lifting up our eyes to 
see if the end had come. But no ! looking from one end of that long avenue to the other 
we see them yet in solid column ; batterj' front ; host beside host ; wheel to wheel ; charger to 
charger ; nostril to nostril ; coming as it were from under the Capitol. Forward ! Forward ! 
their bayonets, caught in the sun, glinmier and flash and blaze till they seem like one long 
river of silver, ever and anon changed into a river of fire. No end to the procession, no 
rest for the eyes. We avert our head from the scene, unable longer to look. We feel 
disposed to stop our ears ; but still we hear it. Marching, marching. Tramp ! Tramp ! 
Tramp ! But hush ! uncover ever>' head. Here they pass, the remnant of ten men of a 
once full regiment. Silence ! Widowhood and orphanage look on and wring their hands. 
Uncover every head ! But wheel into the ranks all ye people, North, South, East, West, 
all decades, all centuries, all millenniums. Forward the whole line ! Huzza ! Huzza ! 

I have safely arrived on the Pacific Coast. A startling question was asked me just 
before I reached here. I was in deep slumber in a section of a sleeping car when the 
curtain was pushed back and a venerable lady seized hold of me and shrieked out : " Who 
are you, and what are you doing here ? " It was a sudden calling of the roll of passengers, 
and I did not feel like answering to my name. The question was repeated in more earnest- 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



73 



ness and with louder voice. I could not at first understand win- the interrogation as to my 
identity, but after gathering my senses together I mildly suggested that perhaps she had 
taken my place for her own. This was no doubt the case, and she made a quick retreat. 
The fact is that the sections and berths of a sleeping car are very much alike. The new 
mode of hanging the number of the berth in large figures on the outside of the drapery of 
the sleeping place is a great improvement ; but midnight perambulation, even under the 
best of circumstances, is more or less confusing. The mistake that the venerable lady 
made is a mistake that thousands of people make, for they think some one else has their 
place. Most of the struggle in the world is in trying to get some one else's berth. Better 
go back contented and take the place assigned you. In trying to get some one else's place, 
we may lose our own without getting his. I cannot jeer at the old lady's mistake, for that 
night on the Southern Pacific Railroad I bethought myself that there are, during every 
Presidential campaign, at least one hundred thousand people trying to get the berths of the 
one hundred thousand present occupants. Good bye, my friends all over ! On the other 
side of the world I will think of those who have put me under obligation, and the first 
hour I have passed the latitude and longitude farthest away from home, and begin to 
return, I will count the weeks and days that stand between me and the lowest step of the 
front door from which, on the evening of May. 14, I departed. 




CHAPTER III. 



PARADISE OF THE PACIFIC. 

IT was two o'clock in the afternoon when at San Francisco I stepped aboard the 
Alameda, of the Oceanic Steamship Company, our Captain Morse, one of the most 
genial, popular and able commanders who ever sailed the seas. He and the 
Pacific Ocean are old acquaintances. He has been in seventeen hurricanes and 
safely out-rode them. Profusion of flowers were sent up the gang-plank and the masses of 
people on the wharf who had come to see their friends off, waved handkerchiefs and threw 

kisses and cried and laughed as is 
usual when an ocean steamer is 
about to start. The gong sounded 
for the leaving of all those from 
the shii^'s deck who did not expect 
to accompany us. The whistle 
blew for loosening from the wharf 
and the screw began to whirl and 
the ship moved out toward the 
Golden Gate. 

The Pacific Ocean met us with 
waves high enough to send many 
to their berths, and to arouse in the 
rest of us the question wh}^ so 
rough a sea should be called the 
Pacific. And for two days the roll, 
the jerk, the rise, the fall, the lunge, 
the tremor, the quake spoiled the 
appetite and hid from sight the ma- 
jority of the passengers. But after 
the third day the ocean and the 
ship ceased their wrestling, and 
Peace smoothed the waves and 
hushed the winds, for the same 
Lord who took a short walk upon 
rough Galilee takes a longer walk 
upon Pacific seas. Different from 
most voyages, there seemed no dis- 
agreeables on board. Enough pas- 
sengei's to avoid loneliness ; not so 
many as to be crowded. What 
difference between a sea-voyage 
now, with all comforts afforded and 
the table containing all the luxuries 




CAPTAIN MORSE, OF THE .AI^AMEDA. 



(74) 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



75 



that can allure a weak appetite, and those da\s when the missionaries crossed to Honolulu 
in vessels greasy and rude, and with food rancid or stale, and with sail full of whims, now 
full-curved, and now limp and idle. 

Politics have never done much for the Sandwich Islands. If a man have no expecta- 
tions for these gems of the Pacific except that which comes from human legislation, I 
would think he would be as despairful as was Kamehameha III., King of Sandwich 
Islands, when on his dying bed, he said, " What is to become of my poor countr\- ? There is 
no one to follow me. Queen Emma I do not trust ; Sunalilo is a drunkard, and Kalakaua 
is a fool." .VII that has been done for the Hawaiian Islands has been done by our gracious 
God and the missionaries. A foreign ship brought to these islands the mosquitoes. The 
foreign sailors brought them the leprosy. American politics brought them the devil. Had 
it not been for the Gospel, those islands \\uul(l still ha\e been i)utting to death women 
for eating bananas 
when forbidden to 
do so, bowing to a 
disgusting idolatry-, 
and in all of the 
islands would have 
been a midnight of 
cruel tv and abomi- 
nation. 

THE AXXEX.A.TION 
OUESTIOX. 

But the mission- 
aries came, and in 
eight years 12,000 
people gathered 
into the churches, 
and 26,000 chi 1- 
dren into schools 
proposing a Chris- 
tian civilization, 
which now holds 
a beautiful suprem- 

acv over the Sandwich Islands. There are two great parties in the Hawaiian Islands: royal- 
ists, who want the Queen, and annexationists, who want to come under our Eagle's wing. 
Neither of them will triumph. The final result will be a republic b\' itself, of which 
the present government is an antepast. The Hawaiian nation is strong enough to stand 
alone. Because a nation is not gigantic is no more reason why it should not have self- 
control than a man with limited resources of physical or financial strength should be 
denied independence. If God had intended Honolulu to belong to the United States, He 
would have planted it hundreds of miles nearer our American coast. The United States 
Government is not so hungry for more land that it needs to be fed on a few chunks of 
i.sland brought from 1800 miles away. No danger that .some other foreign nation .shall 
take possession of the island, and give us trouble when we want to run into Honolulu for 
the coaling and watering of our ships. With some ironsides from otir new navy and the 




THE AI.AMEnA IMS-^IN-, 
Just as it looked that ii..\ 



76 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



aid of our friends on the island, we would knock into smithereens such foreign impertinence. 
Beside that, if we become as a nation a great maritime power, and we will, none of the 
islands of the Pacific would decline us sheltering harbor or supply for our ships. What 
though they belonged to other nations, they would sell us all we want. It is not necessary 
to own a store in order to purchase goods from it. 

HAWAIIAN PROGRESS. 

These are venerable islands. Those who can translate the language of the rocks and 
the language of human bones say that these islands have been inhabited 1400 years at 
least. When found in 1778, they were old places of human habitation. The most unique 
illustration in all the world of what pure and simple Christianity can do is here. Before 

this supernatural force began, infanticide was com- 
mon, and not by mildest form of assassination, 
but buried alive. Demented people were mur- 
dered ; old people were allowed to die of neglect. 
Polygamy in its worst form reigned ; and it was 
as easy for a man to throw away his wife as to 
pitch an apple core into the sea. Superstitions 
blackened the earth and the heavens. Christianity 
found the Sandwich Islands a hell, and turned 
them into a semi-heaven. As in all the other re- 
gions where Christianity triumphed, it was ma- 
ligned by those who came from other lands to 
practice their iniquities. Loose foreigners were 
angered because they were hindered in their disso- 
luteness by a new element they had never before 
confronted. 

" There is Honolulu," cried many voices this 
morning from the deck of the Alameda. These 
islands, called by manj' an archipelago, I call the 
" Constellation of the Pacific," for they seem not 
so much to have grown up, as alighted from the 
heavens. The bright, the redolent, the umbra- 
geous, the floralized, the orcharded, the forested, 
the picturesque Hawaiian Islands! They came in 
upon us as much as we came in upon them in 
the morning. Captain Cook no more discovered 
them in 1778 than we discovered them to-day. He saw them for the first time for himself, 
and we see them for the first time this morning for ourselves. More fortunate are we than 
Captain Cook. He looked out upon them from a filthy boat, and wound up his experiences 
by furnishing his body as the chops and steaks of a savage's breakfast. We from a graceful 
ship alight amid herbage and arborescence, and shall depart with the good wishes and 
prayers from all the islanders. 

HIGH OFFICIAL COURTESIES. 

As you approach the harbor there is in sight a long line of surf rolling over reefs of 
coral. High mountains, hurricane-cleft and lightning-split, but their wounds bandaged 




DR. TALMAGE ON STEAMER AI,AMEDA 
CROSSING THE PACIFIC. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



11 



with the green of perennial foliage. In a few minntes after landing a chamberlain of the 
ex-Queen called to invite us to her mansion, and Chief Justice Judd called with a delegation 
to ask me to preach that afternoon. I accepted the invitation brought b\- tlie chamberlain 
and was beautifully entertained by the Queen. With President Dole, of the Provisional 
Government, and Chief Justice Judd, I went to the Executive Buildings, which were 
formerly the Palace. The Council of the President were already assembled in what was 
originally the Throne Room, and taking the chair on the platform he called for order and 
then rose, and all the Councillors arose with him and he led them in prayer, saying, as near 
as I can remember : " O Lord, God of Nations ! we ask Thy direction in the matters that 
shall come before us. Give us wisdom, and prudence, and fidelity in the discharge of our duties 
and Thou shalt have all the praise, world without end, Amen." I have not been told 




HARBOR OF HONOLUI.T'. 



whether most of the Presidents of the United States have opened their cabinet meetings in 
that way, but it certainlv is a good way. 

At three o'clock that afternoon the Congregational Church was packed to overflowing 
with a multitude, about one-half native Hawaiians and the other lialf people of many lands. 
It was amazing to me that with such a short notice of a few hours such a throng could be 
gathered. But the Honolulu papers have been publishing my sermons for years and it was 
really a gathering of old friends. An interpreter stood beside me in the pulpit and with 
marvelous ease translated what I said into the Hawaiian language. It was such a scene 
as I never before witnessed, and I shall never see it repeated. .A.fter shaking hands with 
thousands of people I went out in the most delicious atmosphere and sat down under the 



78 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



palm trees. What a bewitchment of scenery ! What heartiness of hospitality ! The 
Hawaiians have no superiors for geniality and kindness in all the world. In physical 
presence they are wondrous specimens of good health and stalwartness. One Hawaiian 
could wrestle down two of our nation. 



A LAND OF FLOWERS. 



Banks of flowers white as snow, or blue as skies, or yellow as sunsets, or starry as 
November nights, or red as battlefields. A heaven of flowers. Flowers entwined in 
maidens' hair, and twisted round hats, and hung on necks, and embroidered on capes and 
sacks. Tuberoses, gardenias, magnolias, passifloras, trumpet-creepers, oleanders, geraniums, 




NIGHT SCENE IN THE CRATER OF THE VOLCANO OF KILAUEA, HAWAII. 

fuchsias, convolvuli and hibiscus red as fire. Jessamine, which we in America carefully coax 
to climb the wall just once, here running up and down and jumping over to the other side 
and coming back again to jump down this side. 

Night-blooming cereus, so rare in our northern latitude we call in our neighbors to see 
it, and they must come right away or never see it at all, here in these islands scattering its 
opulence of perfume on all the nights ; and, not able to expend enough in the darkness, also 
flooding the day. Struggling to surpass each other all kinds of trees, whether of fruit or of 
rich garniture, mango, and orange, and bamboo, and alligator pear, and umbrella trees, and 
bread fruit, and algabora, and tamarind, and all the South Sea exotics. Rough cheek of 
pineapple against smooth cheek of melon. The tropics burning incense of aromatics to 
the hieh heavens- 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 79 

THE world's greatest volcano. 
These islands are volcanic resnlts. The volcanoes are giants living in the cellars of 
the earth and warming themselves by subterraneous fires, and when they come out to play 
they toss islands, and sometimes in their sport the)- sprinkle the sea with the Society 
Islands and then they toss up the Navigator Islands and then the Fiji Islands and then the 
Hawaiian Islands. They are Titans, and when they play quoits they pitch islands. When 
the earth finally goes, as go it will, while it will be a very serious matter to us, it will be 
only the work of volcanoes which in their sport are apt to be careless with fire. While 
volcanoes are assigned to the destructive agencies we see here what they can do as archi- 
tects. See here what they have builded. All up and down these islands are dead 
volcanoes. Rocked in cradle of earthquake, they grew up to an active life, and came to 
their last breath, and the mounds under which they sleep are decorated with tropical 
blooms. But the greatest living volcano of all the earth is Hawaiian, and named Kilauea. 
What a hissing, bellowing, tumbling, soaring, thimdering force is Kilauea ! Lake of 
"unquenchable fii'e : Convolutions and paroxysms of flame : Elements of nature in torture : 
Torridity and luridity : Congregation of dreads : Molten horrors : Sulphurous abysms : 
Swirling mystery of all time : Infinite turbulence : Chimnej' of perdition : Wallowing 
terrors : Fifteen acres of threat : Glooms insufferable and Dantesque : Caldron stirred by 
the champion witch of pandemonium : Camp-fire of the armies of Diabolus : Wrath of the 
mountains in full bloom : Shininrering incandescence : Pyrotechnics of the planet : Furnace- 
blast of the ages — Kilauea ! Once upon a time all the geysers, and boiling springs, 
and volcanoes of the earth held a convention to elect a king ; and Etna was there, and 
Hecla was there, and Stromboli was there, and Vesuvius was there, and Fusiyama was 
there, and Manna Loa was there. The discussion in this convention of volcanoes was 
heated. They all spouted impassioned sentiment. Some were candidates for the throne 
and crown because of one pre-eminence and others for other superiorities. But when it was 
put to vote, by irnanimous acclamation Kilauea was elected to be king of volcanoes. All 
the active forces of the earth, all the vapors, all the earthquakes, all the hills, all the con- 
tinents voted aye ! And that night was the coronation. The throne was lava. The 
sceptre was of smoke. The coronet was of fire. And all the sublimities and grandeurs and 
solemnities of the earth kneeling at the foot of the burning throne, cried out, " Long live 
Kilauea of the Hawaiians !" And a voice from heaven added mightiness to the scene as it 
■declared, " He toucheth the hills and the\- smoke." 



CHAPTER IV. 



PRESIDENT AND QUEEN. 

GHB chamberlain, come to invite lis to the residence of the ex-Queen, had 
suggested eleven o'clock that morning as the best hour for our visit. We 
approached the wide-open doors through a yard of palm trees and bananas and 
cocoanut, and amid flowers that dyed the yard with all the colors that a 
tropical sun can paint. We were ushered into the royal lady's reception-room, where, 
surrounded by a group of distinguished persons, she arose to meet us with a cordial grasp 
of the hand. The pictures of her hardly convey an accurate idea of her dignity of bearing. 
She has all the ease of one born to high position. Her political misfortunes seem in no 
wise to have saddened her. She spoke freely of the brightness of life to any one disposed 
to meet all obligations, and at my suggestion that we found in life chiefly what we look for, 

and if we look for flowers we find 
flowers, and if we look for thorns 
we find thorns, she remarked, "I 
have found in the path of life 
chiefly the flowers. I do not see 
how any one surrounded by as 
many blessings as many of us pos- 
sess could be so ungrateful as to 
complain." She said it was some- 
thing to be remembered thank- 
fully that for fifty years there was 
no revolution in the islands. She 
has full faith that the provisional 
government is only a temporary 
affair, and that she will again oc- 
cupy the throne. 

She asked her servant to show 
me, as something I had not seen 
before, a royal adornment made up 
from the small bird with a large 
name, the Melithreptes Pacifica. 
This bird, I had read, had under 
its wing a single feather of very 
exquisite color. The Queen cor- 
rected my information by saying 
that it was not a single feather, but 
a tuft of feathers, from under the 
wing of the bird from which the 
EX ourEv r.ii.i.ioKoui.ANi, AS SHE RECEivKD us. adommeut was fashioned into a 

(So) 




THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



chain of beauty for the neck. She spoke of her visit to New York, but said that pro- 
longed illness hindered her from seeing much of the city. She talked freely and intelli- 
gently on many subjects pertaining to the present and the future. 

I was delighted with her appearance and manner, and do not believe one word of the 
wretched stuff that has been written concerning her immoralities. Defamation is so easy, 
and there is so much cynicism abroad which would rather believe evil than good, that it is 
not to be thought strange that this Queen, like all the other rulers of the earth, has been 
beaten with storms of obloquy and misrepresentation. George Washington was called by 
Tom Paine a Ij'ing impostor. Thomas 
Jefferson was styled an infidel ; and since 
those times we are said to have had in the 
United States presidency a blood-thirsty 
man, a drunkard, and at least two liber- 
tines ; and if anybody in prominent place 
and effective work has escaped, " let him 
speak, for him have I offended." After 
an exchange of autographs on that day 
in Honolulu, we parted. 

PRESIDENT DOLE GREETS HIS GUESTS. 

At one o'clock Chief Justice Judd came 
to the hotel with his carriage to take us to 
the mansion of Mr. Dole, the coming Presi- 
dent. It was only a minute after our en- 
trance when Mr. Dole and his accom- 
plished and brilliant lady appeared with a 
cordiality of welcome that made us feel 
much at home. Mr. Dole is a pronoiuiced 
Christian man, deeply interested in all re- 
ligious affairs, as well as secular ; his pri- 
vate life beyond criticism ; honored by both 
political parties ; talented, urbane, attrac- 
tive, strong, and fit for any position where 
conscientiousness and culture and down- 
right earnestness are requisites. It was to 
me a matter of surprise that at a time when 
politics are red-hot in the Hawaiian Islands, 
and Mr. Dole is very positive in his opinions on all subjects, I heard not one word of 
bitterness spoken against him. Hawaiian and foreigner are alike his eulogists. When I 
referred to the tremendous questions he and his associates had on hand, he said it was 
remarkable how many of the busy men of these islands were willing to give so much of 
their time, free of all charge, to the business of the new government, and from what he 
believed to be patriotic and Christian moti\es. Mr. Dole is a graduate of Williams 
College, Massachusetts, and when I a.sked him if his opinion of President Hopkins, 
of that college, was as elevated as that of President Garfield, he replied, " Yes! I think, 
as Garfield did, that to sit on one end of a log with President Hopkins on the other 
and talk with him on literary matters would be something like a liberal education." 
6 



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SANDFORD P. DOLE, PRHSinENT OF Tllli 
REPUBLIC OF HAWAU. 



82 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



The wife of the coming President is a charm of loveliness, and is an artist withal. Her 
walls are partly decorated with her pencil. And though under her protest, as though the room 
was unworthy of a visit. Chief Justice Judd took me to her studio, where she passes much of 
her time in sketching and painting. The ride I took afterward with the coming President 
and Chief Justice Judd allowed me still other opportunity of forming an elevated opinion of 
the present head of the Hawaiian Government. The cordiality with which we had been 
received by the present ruler and the former Queen interested us more and more in the 
present condition and the future happiness of the Sandwich Islands. 

HEARING BOTH SIDES ON HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS. 

Aware of the different ways of looking at things and of putting things, I resolved to 
get the stor}- of Hawaiian affairs from opposite sides. We have always taken it for granted 

that two and two 
make four. And 
}et two and two 
may be so placed as 
to make t w e n t }■- 
two. The figure 9 
is only the figure 6 
turned upside down. 
There are not many 
things like the figure 
8, the same which- 
ever side is up. 
The different ac- 
counts I here pre- 
sent are reports from 
different stand- 
points. 

I had opportu- 
nity of earnest and 
prolonged conversa- 
tion with a roj-alist, 
educated, truthful, 

NATIONAL PALACE, HONOLULU. of l^igj^ jj^Oj-^J ^h^^. 

acter, born in these islands, and of great observation and experience. The following 
conversation took place between us. 

Qitesfwji : " Do you think the ex-Oueen a good woman ? " 

Answer: "I have seen the Queen very often. I have been one of her advisers, and 
my wife has been with her much of the time from childhood, and has seen her morning, 
noon and night, and under all circumstances, and neither of us has ever witnessed 
anything compromising in her character. She has made mistakes, as all make them, but 
she is fully up to the moral standard of the world's rulers. She is the impersonation of 
kindness, and neither my wife nor myself, nor any one else has ever heard her say a word 
against any one. In that excellence she is pre-eminent. In proof of her good character 
I have to state the fact that there is not a household in Honolulu that did not feel honored 
by her presence. If she had been such a corrupt character as some correspondents have 




THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 83 

represented her, I do not think that the best men and women of the Hawaiian Islands 
would ha\'e sought her for guest and associate." 

Question: "Do you think she has been unjustly treated?" 

Aiis-a'cr : "I do. She has been most infamously treated. While our island was at 
peace, and with no excuse for interference, the United States troops were landed. A group 
of men backed up b\- the United States Minister and troops formed a cabinet and chose a 
President, and sent a committee to the palace and told the Queen to leave the place. It was 
another case of Naboth's \-ineyard. The simple fact is that there were men who wanted the 
palace and the offices and the salaries. From affluent position she was reduced in estate 
until she had to mortgage the little left her to pay commissioners to go to Washington and 
present her side of the case. As I said, she made mistakes, but she was willing to correct 
them, and in a public manifesto declared she was willing to retrace her steps in the matter 
of the ' New Constitution.' She had as much right to her throne as any ruler on earth has 
a right to a throne ; but by sharp practice when she was unsuspecting, the United States 
troops drove her from the palace, took possession of the armament, and inaugurated a new 
government." 

THE ROYALIST VIEW. 

Question : " If the choice o. royalty or annexation were put to the vote of the people, 
what do }ou think would be the decision ? " 

Anszccr : "The Queen's restoration by a majority of at least ten to one. We who are 
royalists are without exception in favor of leaving these matters to a ballot-box. In the 
United States the majority governs and the majorit}- of the people of the Hawaiian Islands 
ought to have the same privilege of governing." 

Question : " Are the Hawaiians property rholders or nomads ? " 

Anszcer: " They are property-holders. They have their homes. They have a practical 
interest in public affairs. Moreover they are for the most part intelligent. You can hardly 
find a Hawaiian born since 1840 who cannot read and write." 

Question: "What do you think is the most pro\-oking item in the condition of }our 
country ? " 

Ans'cccr : "It is that a professed friendly power has robbed xis of our go^•ernment. 
All the nations of the earth consider that your nation has done us a wrong." 

Question : " Taking conditions as the}- now are what do )"ou think had better be done, 
or is that a hemispheric conundrum ? " 

Anszcer : " It is a hemispheric conundnnn. Our Queen is dethroned, and her palace and 
her military forces are in the possession of her enemies. While I cannot see any wa\- in 
which the wrong can be righted, she has such faith in the final triumph of justice that she 
expects to resume her throne. Her estate as well as her crown taken from her, she deserves 
the sympathy of the whole world. I believe in republics for some lands, and monarchies 
for others. One style of government will not do for all stales of people. A republic is best 
for the United States, a monarchy for the Hawaiian Islands." 

Thus ended mj' conversation with the royalist. 

THE RKPriiLIC.W .SIDE OF THE C.\.SE. 

But I also had the opportunity of learning the other side of this question from a 
spirited, patriotic and honest annexationist, and I asked much the same questions that I had 
asked the rovalist. 



84 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



The following conversation between the annexationist and myself took place : 

Question : " Do you think the Queen is fit to reign ? " 

Answer: "No! By her signing the Opium License and the bill for the Louisiana 
Lottery, and by other acts, she has proved herself unfit to govern." 

Question: " Do you think that the present conti'oversy would be relieved, if the ques- 
tion in dispute were left to the votes of all the people on the island ? " 

Answer : "No! The Chinese, the Japanese and the Portuguese would join with the 
natives and vote down the best interests of the Hawaiian Islands." 

Question : " What do you think of the present attitude of the United States Govern- 
ment with respect to the Sandwich Islands ? " 

Answer: "Most unfortimate. We are waiting for a change of administration at 
Washington. Your President has unwisely handled our affairs. We want an administra- 




MAIN STREET, HONOLULU. 

tion at Washington which will favor an annexation, and your next Presidential election 
may settle our island affairs, and settle them in the right wa}-." 

Question : " What is the present feeling between royalists and those in favor of the 
provisional government?" 

Answer: "Very bitter and becoming more and more dangerous, and great prudence 
and wisdom will have to be employed or there will be blood shed." 

Thus ended my conversation with the annexationist. 

As I said in a previous letter, without taking the side either of ro\a]ist or annexa- 
tionist, the Hawaiian Islands will yet be a republic by itself. What an amazing thing that 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



85 



after all the trouble the United States Goveniinent has had with the Chinese population 
now within our borders, trying this and that legislation to suit their case, any American 
statesman should propose,' by the annexation of the Sandwich Islands, to add to our popu- 
lation the 22,000 Chinese and the 12,000 Japanese now living in those islands. If we want 
this addition of 34,000 Chinese and Japanese, had we not better import them fresh from 
China and Japan ? 




HAWAIIAN" 



From what I have seen and heard in this my journey I have come to the conclusion 
that it will be a dire day when the American government hopelessly mixes itself up with 
Hawaiian affairs. It would be disaster to them, and perplexity and useless expense to our- 
selves. "Hands off," and "Mind your own bn.sine.ss " are, in tliis case, .sentiments that 

had better be observed bv English, Oerman and .\mcrican governments. 



CHAPTER V. 

ISLAND OF LEPERS. 

OHE most of the world's heroes and heroines die unrecognized. They will have 
to wait until the roll is called on the other side of the Dead Sea. I have seen 
no celebration of the courage and fidelity of Rev. S. Waiwaiole, who died two 
years ago in the leper settlement of the Sandwich Islands, nor of the Rev. Mr. 
Pahio, who, himself struck with leprosy, goes right on with his evangelical labors, except 
when especial fever of his disease prostrates him, and will continue his work of love until 
he has neither foot to walk nor tongue to speak because of the dreadful disintegration. 
But once in a while there are circumstances which thrill the world with some story like 
that of the brilliant Belgian Catholic priest, Joseph Damien, who, after a week's considera- 
tion of whether he had better do so, accepted the appointment as missionary to Molokai, 
the Isle of L,epers ; for sixteen years administering to the leprous and then d}'ing of the 
leprosy. When told by his physician that he had the fell taint upon him he showed no 
alarm or even agitation, but said, " As I expected. I am willing to die for those I came to 
save." The King knighted him and a memorial slab designates his resting-place, but 
Protestantism has joined Catholicism in the beatification of this self-sacrificing ecclesiastic. 

A TRIBUTE TO D.^MIEN. 

That moral hero completely transformed the Isle of L,epers. It was, before his work 
begun, a pen of abominations. No law, no decency, all the tigers of passion were let 
loose. Drunkenness and blasphemy and libertinism and cruelty dominated. The moral 
disease eclipsed the physical. But Damien dawned upon the darkness. He helped them 
build cottages. He medicated their physical distresses. The plague which he could not 
arrest he alleviated. He settled the controversies of the people. He prepared the dead for 
burial and digged for them Christian graves, and pronounced upon them a benediction. 
He launched a Christian civilization upon the wretchedness. He gave them the gospel of 
good cheer. He told the poor victims concerning the Ivand of Eternal Health, where " the 
inhabitant never says i am sick," and the swollen faces took on the look of hope, and the 
glassy eyes saw coming relief, and the footless, and the limbless, and the fingerless looked 
forward to a place where they might walk with the King robed in white, and " everlasting 
songs upon their heads." 

Good and Christlike Joseph Damien ! Let all religions honor his memory. Let poetry 
and canvas and sculpture tell the story of this man who lived and died for others, and from 
century to century keep him in bright remembrance long after the last leper of all the earth 
shall have felt through all his recovering and revitalized nature, the voice of the Son of 
God saying : " I will ! Be thou clean." 

THE REGIME AT MOLOKAI. 

The eternal pathos of Molokai has attracted the attention of all nations, because it is a 
leper colony. It is a small island, but it contains a continent of woe. It was established in 
mercy. Leprosy was so rapidly advancing in the Sandwich Islands that the entire population 

(86) 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



87 



was imperiled. To control and extirpate the ghastly evil it was necessar)- to put it by 
itself on an island not easily accessible. But those banished there are made as comfortable 
as possible. In one year this leper settlement cost the Hawaiian government $55,000. 
Every week each patient is allowed four pounds of salmon, nine pounds of rice, one pound 
of sugar, or if preferred from five to six pounds of beef and twenty-one pounds of paiai^ 
which is a near approach to bread. Leprosy reigns there. The victims have bands of 
inusic, all the players lepers ; they have churches, all the worshipers lepers ; they have 
carriages, all the drivers and occupants lejiers ; they have hospitals, all the nurses and 
patients lepers ; they have the drama, and all the actors lepers ; they have schools, all the 




ruiN'Ci'.ss xAr'ir.fixirs rksidi'. 



:i: IN' TioNorji.r. 



teachers and scholars lepers ; marriages are performed and the contracting parties leper.s. 
Children are born there and they are mostly lepers. Everything tiiat pustule and scarifica- 
tion and inflammation and gangrene and disfiguration can do is done here. Science, which 
has successfully fought back most of the world's disorders, has here closed its pharmacy, 
put back into its case its surgical instruments and come down to the government boat and 
retreated from this island of death. Thank God this dominion of deatli is being broken 
and he will have to dismount this sepulchral throne. Segregation of the victims will 
complete the overthrow of the foul plague, and in these islands a leper will be as rare as in 
America, where most of the people never saw a leper. 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



CHEERFUL, THOUGH DOOMED. 

What most strikes a visitor at Molokai is the placidity and cheerfulness of the victim- 
ized. One would think they could never smile, never sing, never get out from under a 
sense of despair. But whatsoever agonies may fill the hearts of these lepers, they appear to 
the beholder as in a resignation that amounts to good cheer. They seem among the 
happiest people on earth. Many of them on horseback, come galloping down the road. 
Songs roll over the fated village by day and night. Human nature adjusts itself to circum- 
stances. We have often seen people who through pulmonary or Bright's disease were 
certain of early demise and yet with a mirth bubbling and resonant. The fact is we must 




DOWAGER XAPILOXIUS, AT KING KALAKANTJ'S COFFIN, HONOLULU. 

all die, and yet we manage to keep cheerful, and why not those struck by leprous fatality 
have sunshine in their countenance and talk. 

The mercy of the Hawaiians has made this colony of doomed inhabitants more 
tolerable than in most lands. I have seen in the suburbs of Jerusalem and Damascus 
scores of those cast out for this disease and inhabiting caverns and tombs. Beaten of the 
elements, living on the coin which passers-by may fling to them, while day by day they 
are rotting alive. Let us thank God that those smitten with incurable sores, in the Sand- 
wich Islands, have homes, and schools, and churches, and food, and nurses, and alleviations, 
and parterres of sweetest flowers under arches of bluest skies. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



89 



THE STORY OF WILLIAM RAGSDALE, LEPER. 

No respecter of persons is this ph}-sical calamity. William Ragsdale, a popular 
lawyer, was sent there. He was eloquent both in Hawaiian and English, and could make 
his audience weep and laugh and shiver and resolve. He had the satire of a Junius and 
the impassioned abandon of an O'Connell. No one suspected he was a leper before the day 
when he sent a letter to the authorities surrendering himself, and sa)'ing that on the morrow 
he would go aboard the 
steamer for Molokai. He 
spent the morning of the 
day of his departure in riding 
around to say good-bye to 
his friends, and just before 
the hour of .sailing came 
down to the boat, his neck 
adorned with gardenia, and 
turned around and made a 
farewell address, closing 
with the words : " Aloka ! 
May God bless you, my 
brothers !" 

Hundreds of the people 
and a glee club accompanied 
him to the boat, and they 
rent the air with lamenta- 
tions as the boat swung off 
from its moorings. He 
took a Bible and some law 
books with him into his 
dreadful exile, and the 
prayers of churches were 
offered that he might have 
courage and peace in the 
remaining days of his earth- 
ly tarrying. Queen Emma's 
cousin. Honorable Mr. Kaco, 
was also sent to Molokai ; 
and there was no power in 
his royal connection to keep 
him outside of that island. ■^T'^""'- "" ><^^";,.amki.a .., imNn,.,-.,,.. 

]\Irs. Napela, of high social circle, had her cottage of enforced e.xilc on that island of 
sepulchres. A legislator of the Hawaiian Islands is there closing his life. He was 
probably a good legislator in the da\-s of his health, but I cannot help thinking what a 
good thing it would be if all the leprous legislators of the earth could be put on some 
island by themselves. Such a banishment would be a mighty thinning out at Albany, 
Harrisburg and Washington, legislatures State and national. The United States Gov- 
ernment could afford to provide such a Molokai, and the moral lepers sent there could 
have their legi-slature and congress and board of aldermen and army and navy all of 




THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



91 



the same blotch. But while the Hawaiian legislator could be found out and sent to 
the so-called "Isle of Precipices," the moral leper is not so easih- designated, because he 
has the blotch not so much on his forehead as on his heart. What every State and nation 
now needs is a Molokai, or Isle of Lepers. 

LEPROSY PIAGNO.SKD. 

Conversation about leprosy with a former member of the lioard of Health for the 
Hawaiian Islands revealed to me the following facts : 

Question : " In what part of the system does leprosy begin its work ?" 

Anszccr : "It attacks the nerve-centres." 

Question : " I thought it was a disease of the blood ? " 

Anszt'cr : " No. It begins with the uerv-es, and just as the girdling of the trunk of a 
tree first shows its withering results in the tip end of the long branch of the tree, so 




leprosy is apt to first show itself in the paralysis or doubling up of the little finger, or in 
the toe, or 111 the lobe of the ear. Sometimes there appears upon the body a shining 
surface, and it is unimpressible. Prick it with a pin, and there is no sting. All the rest 
of the patient's bodv may be in perspiration, but that spot remains dry. Sometimes all tlie 
signs of physical disorder disappear, and the disease seems gone. Then there will come a 
leprous fever, and that will throw out a blush or efflorescence that more empliatically 
announces the progress of the disease. Then all signs of skin disturl)ancc disappear, but 



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(92) 



THE WORLD AS SEP:N TO-DAY. 93 

after tlie following leprous fever the case is worse than before. So each retreat of the 
disease is followed by a more decided advance." 

Question : " Is it painful ? " 

Ansivcr: "No. That is one of the mercies. From the first assault of the plague to 
the hour of death there is an absence of physical suffering." 

Question : " But is there no mental depression ? " 

Anszvcr : "Oh, yes. At the first acquaintance of the fact that the disease is on him, 
a horrid gloom settles upon the patient. But after a while a slight hope of recoven,- is 
born, and the incipient leper tries all forms of cure, and no form is so absurd that it will 
not recommend itself as worthy of experiment. And then all the time the patient thinks 
it may be something besides leprosy." 

Question: "When a victim of the disease is first charged with having the plague, I 
should think he would resent it." 

Anszver : " Yes, and the English law makes it a libelous case for the courts, if a man is 
unjustly charged with being a leper. Boards of Health have to be very careful in the work 
of segregation." 

Question : " Are there an}' cases of cure ? " 

Anszver: "The only cases I recall are those mentioned in the Bible. Naaman, the 
Syrian hero, and the ten cases whom Christ cured, nine of them too mean to acknowledge 
the divine medicament." 

Question : "What in ordinary cases is the velocity of the disease, and how long before 
it completes its work ? " 

Anszver : " Well, I have known one case last sixteen }'ears. I think the usual durance 
is five or six years." 

Question: "Has the leprosy different modes in demonstrating itself?" 

Anszver : " It has. The tuberciilous and the anesthetic. The former is more repulsive, 
it swells and bloats and distorts the face. The last sign of humanity is blotted from the counte- 
nance. There are cases of this kind called ' leonine,' for the reason that the face is so widened 
and enlarged and made severe that the countenance looks like a lion. The anesthetic 
form is a withering, a thinning out, a wasting away, a depletion, a skeletonizing process." 

Question : " Is it contagions ? " 

Anszver: "There are different opinions about that. I ha\-e seen in married life the 
husband or wife a leper for years, and the partner in life always in good health. I have 
known a leprous parent to have a healthy child. I was talking on this subject with an 
eminent ph)sician who said to me, ' Do you see those two children playing together? The 
one is a leper and the other my own child, and I have no fear about contamination.' " 

Question : "How many patients are there in Molokai at the present time?" 

Anszver : " About one thousand." 

Here ended my conversation with the former member of the Board of Health of the 
Sandwich Islands. Up to date the woe goes on. Only two weeks ago, a ship took twenty- 
five more lepers to ^lolokai. The scene of parting is .said to be so heart-rending that but 
few people go to the wharf to witness it. The wailing and the howling at the parting of 
families, as the filial, and fraternal, and paternal, and maternal bonds arc broken, is something 
that haunts the memory. Not long ago a young man, sentenced to the leper island, declared 
he would not be taken alive. He shot three of those who were attempting to segregate 
him, and then hid in a hut until a cannon on a neighboring liill bombarded the hut into a 
wreck. Then a relative went to the hut and found the \oung man dead. 



94 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



But do not let us give up discouraged. Leprosy as well as cancer and all the other 
now unconquered ailments will yet be cured. I do not know where the cradle now holding 
the coming doctor is being rocked, whether at Molokai, or in Honolulu, or on the banks of 
the Thames, or the Rhine, or the Tiber, or the Ural, or the Hudson, or the Savannah. Xor 
do I know from what college he will unroll his diploma, nor in what laborator>- he will 
make his experiments, nor in what decade he will give proclamation of the world's 
emancipation from diseases as yet incurable, but he will go through the same persecutions 
that Doctor Jenner did because of his discovery of a way to halt small-pox, and as Doctor 
Keeley has endured because of his almost supernatural cure of alcoholism, and the new 




A NATIVE FEAST, HAWAII. 

discoverer will run the gauntlet of caricature, and expulsion from medical societies, and will, 
like the most illustrious Being of all ages, become the target for expectoration, but the 
discoverer will give leprosy the command " Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther," and that 
disease will wriggle and crawl and slink out of the world, and after the medical emancipator 
is dead, the nations will build a monument so high to his memory, that the granite shaft 
will dispute with the' skies the right of possession, and in the epitaph thereon the clicking 
chisel will tr^' to atone for the slanderous tongue, and the world that held back from the 
discoverer the bread of honest praise will give him a stone of post-mortem commemoration. 
Forward the whole column of surgeons and physicians for the conquest of leprosv and 
cancer. 




CHAPTER VI. 

BATTLE AND SHIPWRECK. 

HUNDRED and sixty dead men in the angry waters ; one sliip sunk out of sight 
so that not so much as a plank or rope has since appeared ; of our tliree great 
American warships lying in the harbor, the "Leipsic" beached, the "Trenton " 
and " Vandalia" demolished ; of the three great German men-of-war, the " Eber " 
and "Olga" gone completely under ; the "Adler" rolled over on its side and cracked apart amid- 
ships; out of all the vessels in harbor only one saved, and that because it had steam up and 
coiild sail out into the sea ; three days of wreckage and fright and horror which shook the 
island, and by report of next steamer transfixed all nations ; all this a brief putting of what 
an Antipodean hurricane did for this harbor in March, 1889. While all up and down the 
beach of this island are pieces of the wreckage of that unparalleled tempest only one 
skeleton of the ship remains, the "Adler," sufficiently distinct to represent that scene of 
cyclonic infernization. It is rather unfortunate that Samoa in the popular mind of all 
nations stands as a synonym of shipwreck, for the place is as fine a specimen of foliage and 
fruitage as the world holds. Indeed, its harbor is the sea captain's anxiety. For though a 
wide harbor it has only a small entrance, and rocks in all directions toss the white foam. 
The captain told us that we need not think we were left if we saw him sailing out to sea, 
for he would do so if a squall came up, but he would return and take us. 

After more than seven days of ocean rolling, without sight of ship or land, the Samoan 
Islands greet you like a beatific vision. As we came on deck this morning the waters 
were covered with small boats of natives bringing specimens of coral and all manner of 
flowers and fruits, ready to sell these and transport to shore all the passengers who chose to 
go. A boat belonging to the German Legation with four stout oarsmen, took us three- 
quarters of a mile to the beach. From thence we went to King ^Malietoa's residence. But 
it is a time of war. The King had fled to the forest. A few nights before he was thought 
to be at a village house, and it was surrounded and shot into, and the King would have 
been slain if he had been there. The whole island is in turmoil. We were shown the 
King's rooms and his pictures and bric-a-brac. The walls suggested fondness for German and 
English royalty, but I found not a face of any American President or general. We saw the 
Queen and at the invitation of the warriors went into the guard's tent. About fifteen 
dusky soldiers, each reclining on a pillow of round wood upheld by two small supports. A 
more uncomfortable pillow it would seem to me than that in Bethel, from the foot of 
which Jacob saw the angelics. 

Each of the warriors had a gun within reach. .\t their invitation we sat down on a 
mat beside tho.se who were sitting, and in scant vocabulary talked over the Samoan troubles. 
We saw one soldier who had been .shot in the foot, and he was limping along leaning on an 
assistant. Four men were killed last night in a skirmi.sh and another skirmish is to take 
place to-niglit. There are natives who do not want to pay their taxes and their various 
grievances have been .summed up, and a young warrior wants to get the throne and intro- 
duce the millennium. A long-continued struggle is opening. Meanwhile a German and 
English man-of-war is in the harbor and an .\nierican man-of-war is expected soon. What 

(95) 



96 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



will be the result no one can prophesy. But this is certain, this island and all the group of 
islands are suffering from foreign interference. It is a common saying among the natives 
that first comes the missionary, then comes the merchant, then comes . the consul, then 
comes the man-of-war, then oh, ni}' ! 

Why should three great nations like the English, German and American stoop to such 
small business as to be watching with anxious and expensive vigilance these islands, for 
fear that this or that foreign government should get a little advantage? Better call home 
your warships and leave all to the missionaries. They will do more for the civilization of 
Samoa, than all the guns that ever spoke from the sides of the world's navies. The captain 
of our steamer, in an interesting address a few evenings ago concerning the islands of the 

Pacific, declared that the onl}- move- 
ment toward civilization that amounted 
to anything in these islands had been 
made by the church. Gospel, not gun- 
powder. Life, not death. Bibles, not 
bullets. 

The only movement that at this 
time has full swing in Samoa is " trade 
gin." That maddens and embrutes and 
has given to Samoa the unsavory and 
unjust title of the " Hell of the Pacific." 
The foreign gin is helped in its work by 
a domestic drink called " kava." It is 
prepared in the following delicious way. 
There is a plant called Piper Methisti- 
cum, from the root of which the kava 
is made. A young Samoan woman 
moved to one of the Fiji Islands, but 
got tired and resolved to return to her 
native islands. Before starting home- 
wards she saw a rat, which seemed weak 
and thin, eat the root of this plant, when 
the rat soon after became strong and 
vigorous, and she concluded that the 
best thing she could do for her native 
land was to take this root to her people, 
that it might make them strong and 
vigorous too. So it was transplanted. As the root of it made the rat strong and vigor- 
ous, why not the same result be produced in the human race ? So she cultivated in Samoa 
the Piper Methisticum, from which the kava is made. Girls, and old men who have 
nothing else to do, prepare this kava by the following process : They take the root and 
chew it until the juice fills their mouth, then they discharge it from the mouth into a bowl, 
more root is put into the mouth and the liquid disposed of in the same way. It has become 
a popular drink. It is ordered on all occasions ; at the opening and closing of all socialities, 
before and after all styles of business, it is kava here and kava there and kava everywhere. 
And it is cleaner than most of the drinks of other countries and has in it no log-wood, strych- 
nine or nux vomica, but pure and simple expectoration. I consider it as an improvement 




AN ASPIRANT TO THE THRONE OF SAMOA. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 97 

on most strong drinks. It is said to be a niost delicions drink. Almost all visitors try 
this kava and see what it tastes like and what are its effects, bnt as I have great faith in 
the testimony of others, I did not taste it, believing all they said about the pungent and 
grateful flavor of this beverage of refined and delectated spit. The kava not only appeals 
to the taste, but it is said to beautify the cup or bowl from which it is quaffed. The bowl 
is not washed, but retains the settlings of this beverage, which harden and come to look 
like exquisite enameling, which submits to a high polish. Not only is the cup enameled, 
but the stomach of the one who takes it, becomes also an enameling so elaborate that I am 
informed that one who was in such condition, by sneezing violently, cracked the enamel 
and died. Instead of the burning out of the vitals by the brandy and whiskey and wines 
would it not be more sesthetic to carry^ around a whole art gallery of enameled insides ? 

Tell all the Methodists Malietoa is a Wesleyan and a consistent follower of the three 
worthies of Epworth, Susannah, Charles and John. Though his every drop of inherited 
blood is warlike, this king is a man of peace. One of his ancestors fought back an enemy 
from Samoa, and did it so well that the defeated troops, as they got back into their boats, 
cheered the Samoan king, shouting, "Well done, fighting cock." But the present king 
might better be symbolized by a dove rather than a chanticleer. As in America we never 
had but one man who declined being President of the United States when he knew that 
he could get the office, so Malietoa is the only man that I know of who declined to be 
king, when the honor fell to him. Again and again he preferred another for the throne, 
and accepted roy^alty only when circumstances compelled him to do so. There have been 
deeds of blood since he took the sceptre, but war is barbarism whether imder Samoan, or 
American, or English flag. Nearly all the great generals of our American wars have been 
good members of Presbyterian, or Episcopalian, or Methodist, or Baptist, or Congregational, 
or Catholic churches. 

Do not therefore sneer when I write that Malietoa is a Wesleyan. The flag that floats 
over his house is a one-starred flag contrived by a missionary. Indeed, the good work of 
the missionaries is found wherever we go on this island. The Bible is the chief book. 
There arc churches and schools. One of the group of islands has a college of fifty-five 
students in preparation for the ministry. Nearly all the inhabitants of these islands can 
read and write. There are no doubt enough bad people. Three ships of war lying for the 
most time in the harbor keep the natives familiar with the vices of more civilized nations. 
The beach-combers, as they are called at Samoa — that is, the men who combine the work 
of wrecker, pirate, thief, desperado, and agent for the slums — are found here ; but every 
city that I know of has its beach-combers, and the poor swindled immigrants find them 
more numerous at Boston, New York and Liverpool than the voyagers of the Pacific find 
them at Samoa. 

These islands are more thorough Sabbath-keepers than you will find in almost any 
land of all the earth. From early morning until late at night on Sabbath, the whole town, 
with few exceptions, is given up to devotion. At half-past six on Sabbath morning the 
church bells ring, and the people put on their best attire and assemble for worship. Again, 
in mid-afternoon, the church bells ring, and the people gather. Far on into the Sunday 
night the Christian songs may be heard, caught up and sounded back from home to home, 
and from mountain to beach. There is far more Sabbath kept in Samoa than in any 
town or city in America of the same size. But this was not always so. From what 
cruelty Christian civilization has lifted it ! In olden time when they conquered an enemy 
they broke his spine. To add to the humiliation of the defeated, some of them were 
7 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



99 



roasted and eaten. When a woman was candidate for marriage to some chief, she was 
seated in the market-place for the pnblic to decide whether she were fit for snch marriage. 
If they decided in the negative, she was chibbed to death. 

They worshiped the dog, or the eel, or the tnrtle, or the lizard, or the shark. " Back!" 
cried the Christian religion to such monstrosities of behavior, and all things changed. 

TATTOOING AND OCEAN CIIRO:\IATICS. 

The Samoans have not much nse for clothes. I saw no fashion-plates in the windows. 
A tailor would starve to death in Samoa. Lack of complete ph}-sical investiture comes not 
from undue econoni)', not from 
pauperism, not from immorality, 
but origiualh' from the fact that, 
on these islands, the climate is 
so mild the year round that ne- 
cessity does not make inexor- 
able demand upon weavers and 
clothiers. 

But gradually calicoes and 
nankeens and alpacas are com- 
ing into demand. The Samoan 
somewhat substitutes tattooing, 
which in some cases appears 
quite like a suit of clothes. In 
the boat crossing from wharf to 
steamer I put my hand on. the 
knee of a Samoan, and said, 
"You are tattooed." He re- 
plied, " Yes ; that me clothes." 
I said, " When do you have that 
tattooing done ?" He answered, 
" Twenty years of age." I said, 
" Does it hurt ?" He replied, 
" Oh, yes ! Hurt ! Swell up !" 
I asked, " How long does it take 
to have that tattooing done ?" 
He answered, "Two months." 
Indeed, all the men I noticed 
had been tattooed. It is a badge 
of manhood. A man is not re- 
spected unless tattooed. He 
would be thrust out of society 

or not admitted. The most profitable business is that of tattooin 
the bush with a few candidates for two or three months 




KING AND ^ji-i'i;x 
In such attire thu (Jull 



The artist retires to 

Every day, as the patient can 

endure it, the pricking in of the paint by needles and sharp-tooth combs, the process goes on. 

The suffering is more or less great, but one must be in the fashion ; )-et I suppo.se in 

this there is no more pain than that which men and women suffer in the martvrdom of 

fashion through which some people go in the higher civilized life. What tight boots with 



lOO 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



agony of corns ! What piercing of the ear lobes for diamond rings ! Wliat crucifixion of 
stout waists to make them of more moderate size ! The tattooing is only another form 
of worship at the altar of fashion — no flinching on the part of the tattooed, no backing out. 

The work done, he who went into 
the bush a boy comes out a man. 

As we passed along the main 
street of the island, we had a crowd 
after us with something to sell. To 
buy a flower or a shell was greatly 
to reinforce the number of the es- 
corting part}'. The men are muscu- 
lar and well formed. The children 
are beautiful. As to the women, 
every nation has its type of female 
beauty, and no one of another nation 
is competent to judge concerning it. 
But there goes the whistle of the 
" Alameda." It has to sound three 
times, and then off for New Zealand. 
We wait for the second whistle and 
then start. Over the rolling billows 
to the ladder of the steamer, and up 
to our old place on the good ship, to 
which we again trust our lives. 
What a m^-stery it must be to all the 
innumerable creatures of the deep. 
We discuss some flying fish, or see 
once in a voyage a spouting whale, 
but we never realize that we are be- 
ing discussed by the inhabitants of 
an element filled with so much life 
that our captain says when a whale 
is wounded by its captors, it requires 
two men to keep off the sharks 
while the captive is being drawn in. 
What, suppose you, the inhabitants 
of Oceana think of this ship floating 
above them, of the bow plowing 
through, of the screw stirring the 
wave, of the passengers bending over 
the railing? Every moment, as we 
pass on by day and night, there are thousands of ichthyological inquiries of " What's 
that? " What do the seagulls flying hundreds of miles from shore think of us? What do 
the sharks think ? What do the whales think ? What does the octopus think ? We are 
as great mysteries to them as they are to us. And now we come back to study that which 
has been to me one of the great wonders in my voyages across the Atlantic, and is now as 
fascinating in my first voyage over the Pacific, and will, I suppose, be to me as great a 




BURJIESE MOTHER AND SON, SHOWING SAMPLE OF TATTOOING 
AMONG UNCIVIIJZED RACES. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



lOI 



wonder until the last push of the steamer after I have entered New York harbor. I mean 
tlie architecture and adornment of an ocean wave. What mathematics could contrive its 
curve, or what compass execute it? Its gracefulness, its ease, its perfection, its suggestive- 
ness of more curves if it desired to make them. Then the lace-work of foam hung on it, 
all its threads woven by the finger of God, and looped up, and unrolled and folded and put 
back on shelves of crystal. Then the top of the wave, as it makes up its mind to recoil or 
drop on the other side or mount higher. Now the white melting into the blue, like snowy 
clouds dissolving into the blue of skies. Then two waves, each gamitured with surf, rising 
to meet each other, and married into one bliss of opalescence and emerald and fire. Oh ! 




SAMOAM GIRI.S MAKING KAVA. 

the rise, the rush, the arch, the fall, the voice, the splendor, the convolution, the miracle, 
the coronation, the Divinity in an ocean billow. All the harmonies of heaven did not 
make St. John forget the " voice of many waters." 

But there is the illumined wave, or the one that glows as it is struck through with 
light from the other side, or the wave that takes on the colors of hovering cloud, and is 
saffron or orange or solferino or beryl or amber or the shifting of all the colors from the 
centre of the wave's curve to the coronal and the base. Oh, the living wave, the inspired 
wave, the pictured wave, the wave just born, or the wave just dying. The complexion of 
the wave is ever changing : florescent, rubescent, iridescent. Now phosphorescence 
decorates it with a flash, or tlie night sinks into it a silver anchorage of star, or the morning 







jvM 



!.# 



w 



. W( 





(102 'i 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



103 



puts upon its brow a coronet. Blanclied into white or blushed into carmine. Now black 
as a raven's wing ; now roseate as the flamingo's plumage. From russet to ultramarine, 
and thence to malachite, then incarnadined as if wounded, into vermilion or magenta. I 
celebrate not the ocean. It is too big. I celebrate only one ocean wave. But there are 
times when it is hushed to sleep, on the great bosom of its mother which never ceases to 
heave ; for though the billow may slumber, the ocean keeps its everlasting swell. The 
child may sleep while the mother rests not. But he who has only studied the wave asleep, 
or the wave aroll, does not fully know it. The wave has moods. It sometimes passes from 
the calm to the irate, from the beautiful to the awful, from the pleasant to the terrific, 
from the slumberous to the paroxysmal, from aesthetics to demoniacs, and though now it 
may play with the 
zephyr, it may after- 
ward wrestle with 
Caribbean whirl- 
wind or Mediterra- 
nean euroclydon. 
Nothing can stand 
before it when com- 
manded to destroy. 
It rallies from the 
abysms a semi-om- 
nipotence. From 
all sides under the 
strength of the 
winds it rolls toward 
the shore or bom- 
bards the ship. It 
was one wave that 
consummated al- 
most every ship- 
wreck. The preliminarv waves, the preparatory forces, the introductory furies may have 
done their work, but the final stroke was left for one climacteric force, and that gathered 
and rolled up and surged forward, black with wrath, and charged upon the i>alaces of the 
deep, submerging them, or moved into the unsheltered harlxjr with the twisted bolts, and 
the split beams of ocean conquerors. The capsized ".\dler" of the Cierman navy lying on its 
side, rusted and riven and parted amidships, shows what a wave, once bluc-cyed, and rocked 
in the lap of a bright day, and lullabicd of soft winds, may grow up to be whc!i, with 
demoniac yell and crushing vengeance, and all-conquering might, it swears the doom of 
everything between the coral reefs and the beach of the harbor of Samoa. 

The ocean .sentenced to death in the Book which says "There shall be no more .sea," 
seems determined to demonstrate, before it is slain, what «)ne wave can do, in lighting up 
the world with the beautiful, or blackening it under the swoop of a tornado. 




SAMOAN RESIUHNXi; IN T»K COl'NTRY AS I SAW IT. 



CHAPTER VII. 



UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS. 

OHERE are some things in the mind year after year remaining undefined. The 
time for explanation does not seem to come. We had for years seen allusions 
to the Southern Cross. We knew not what it meant. We supposed it to be an 
appearance in the heavens at certain latitude and longitude, yet we knew not 
exactly what that appearance was. But seated a few nights ago on the deck of this ship 
in our voyage around the world a gentleman bent over me and said, " The Southern Cross 
is visible. Let us go and see it." Going to the opposite side of the ship I looked up and 
beheld it in all its suggestiveness looking down upon us and looking down upon the sea. 
The Southern Cross ! It is made up of 
four bright stars. One star standing at the 
top of the perpendicular piece of the cross, 
and another star standing for the foot of 
it. One star standing for the right hand 
end of the horizontal piece of the cross, 
and another star for the left hand end of 
it. So clear, so resplendent, so charged 
with significance, so sublimely marking 
off the heavens that neither man nor 
woman nor child nor angel nor devil can 
doubt it. The Southern Cross ! To make 
it God put those four worlds in their places. 
The tender and tremendous emblem of our 
religion nailed against the heavens with 
silver nails of star. Four are enough. God 
wastes no worlds. He will not encourage 
stupidity. If you cannot see the Southern 
Cross in the four stars, forty stars will not 
make you see it. Up yonder they stand, 
the four stellar evangelists upholding the 
cross. What a Gospel of the firmament ! 
. The cross that Constantine saw in the sky 
with the words " By this conquer," was an 

evanescent cross and for one night, but maori chief, new Zealand. 

this Southern Cross is for all nights, and Brought by the author. 

to last while creation lasts. So every night of this voyage among the islands of the 
Pacific I am reminded by this celestial crucifix of the only influence that has turned the 
islands from their cruelty, and shamelessness, and horror, the influence of the Cross. 

Excepting the throne of the Deity I think there will be no higher thrones in heaven 
than those occupied by the missionaries. Others have lived and died for their own 

(104) 




THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



105 



country. These lived and died for the natives of other countries. Many of tlie mission- 
aries were the graduates of Yale, or Princeton, or New Brunswick, or O.vford, or Cambridge, 
or Edinburgh, and were qualified for pulpits, for editorial chairs, for medical achieve- 
ment, for great words and deeds in court rooms, for commercial successes that would have 
brought all honors and all luxuries to their feet. Many of the women of this foreign 
mission cause were brought up in refined associations, could play well on musical instru- 
ments, were the charm of best society, had attractiveness that fitted them for any circle of 
ease or opulence. Such men and women took whale-ships for foreign lands, lived on fare 
that only coarsest digestive organs could manage, were tossed for months on rough seas, 
landed amid naked savages, abode in grass huts, spent their life amid the squalor and the 
stench, and the vennin and the epidemics and the low vices of those whom they had come 
to rescue. Of a roll of a hundred and eighty names of such men and women not more than 
four or five of them were ever heard of outside of their own kindred or the circles of 
barbarians among whom they lived. The story of the Christian heroes and heroines who 
came to these islands of the ^^-,-^^,,:^^^^^ - -^^^-^^ ^^^^^^ 

Pacific in the brig " Thad- " _ 

deus," the " Leland," the 
*' Benjamin Bush," the " Av- 
erich," and the "Mary 
Frazier " u n d e r Captain 
Charles Sumner, can never 
be fully told. All the tal- 
ents, all the scholarship, all 
the nerve and muscle and 
brain, all the spiritual ener- 
gies of these Christly men 
and women put forth on be- 
half of people whom they 
had never seen, and whose 
names they had never heard 
pronounced until the day of 
arrival on these islands. 
Some of these messengers of 
light were cut to pieces and devoured by cannibals. Some of them toiled to save the 
besotted savages while profligates of Christian countries landed from merchantman or war- 
vessel or whaling .ship were trying to destroy them. 

The daughter of one of the missionary families describes her mother as toiling until 
the .skin was blistered off her arms and says that while her father was about to preach, 
a group of drunken sailors broke the windows and brandished a knife alxiut his face, 
saying, " Here he is ; I have got him ! Come on ! " These mi.ssioiiaries .sent tlicir little 
children to America and Europe because they could not be properly brought up amid 
heathenism, and what heart-rending partings took place as fathers aii<l mothers surrendered 
their children for the voyage across the seas, in many cases those parents never seeing their 
children again. No regular postal arrangements, letters were .sometimes not received until 
eighteen months or two years old. The ship-captain, Charles Sumner, for the first part of 
the voyage to the Pacific with his group of missionaries scoffed at Christianity, but he was 
converted under the influence of their example, and became their cIiami>ion. He said about 




if'^(ir^-«f»»':*»»«w^i»'B«3ir'' ; 



A MAORI nwi 



io6 THE EARTH GIRDLED. I 

one of these Pacific islands, " I have been here before and I see the difference. Formerly as] 
soon as my anchor was down my ship was surrounded by dissolute men and women i 
swimming out from shore and trying to come aboard. How different now ! Christianity 
has made the change." And when some one traduced the missionaries he said, " Oh, you 
need not tell me these stories. I have lived four months with these dreadful people and 
know them well. I know the natives, too, as they were many years ago and I am fully 
convinced that the change I see is from the influence of the religion of the Bible." 

One boy was the means of the civilization and evangelization of the Sandwich Islands. 
His father and mother were killed and he ran away with his baby brother on his back. 
The infant was slain by a spear. The heroic boy got on a ship for New England. He was 
found weeping on the steps of Yale College, Connecticut. He told the story of his native 
island. That story aroused the Christian world. "A little child shall lead them." The 
Tahitian Islands have felt the same supernal power. They had been in the habit of slaying 
aged parents, and when there were too many children in a family they were put out of the 
way. Cannibalism was a part of the diet. There was no law of morality for unmarried 
women. One of their religious sacrifices was a man and a pig roasted together. In the 
Fiji Islands parents were buried alive, and wives were captured as buffalo are lassoed. 
Incantation was common and snake worship prevailed. Among the Marquesans polyandry, 
or the custom of having many husbands, was considered right. An iron needle was worn 
in the nostril. The lower lip by force of torture was driven out to utmost distortion. 
There was a canonization of filth and obscenity and massacre. The Friendly Islands and 
the Society Islands were at the lowest depths in morals and cruelty. All these islands 
have been illumined, and the most of the abominations have sped away, not because of the 
threat of foreign guns or as a result of national or international politics, but by the influ- 
ence of that which yonder mighty crucifix in the night sky typifies. Let no ship captain 
ever see it from a deck on the Pacific, or passenger whether for pleasure or profit sailing 
amid these islands behold it, without remembering what the Southern Cross has done for 
the besotted savages, bounded on all sides by these vast wildernesses of water. 

Oh, that Southern Cross ! Were ever four worlds better placed than those which com- 
pose it ? Though they were uninhabited, and built only for this significance, they were 
worthily built. Shine on until all the people of this hemisphere who see thee shall 
bethink themselves of the sacrifice thou dost depict ! A cross not made out of darkness, 
but out of light. A cross strong enough for all nations who see it to hang their hopes 
upon. One night while I watched this celestial crucifix, the clouds gathered, and the top 
of the cross was gone, and the foot of it was gone, and the outspread arms were gone. No 
more of it to be seen than if it had never been hoisted. Had the clouds conquered the 
stars ? No. After a while the clouds parted and rolled back and off, and there it stood 
with the same old emblazonment — the Southern Cross. So the hostilities of earth and hell 
may roll up and seem to destroy the hope of communities and of nations, but in God's good 
time the antagonisms will fall back, and all obscurations will be dispelled, and all the earth 
shall see it, the Southern cross for the South, the Northern cross for the North, the Eastern 
cross for the East, the Western cross for the West, but all four of the crosses found at last 
in the new astronomy of the gospel to be one and the same cross, that which was set up 
1900 years ago, and of which I have found either a prophecy or a reminiscence in that 
uplifted splendor, seen night by night while pacing the deck of a steamer on the Pacific. 



CHAPTER VriT. 

ANTIPODEAN EXPERIENCES AND BALAKLAVA ON A DINING-TABLE. 

OHE Angels of Night were descending from the evening skies, and ascending 
from the waves of the Pacific, and riding down in black chariot of shadow from 
the mountains of New Zealand as we approached the harbor of Auckland, and 
the lighthouse on the rocks held up its great torch to keep us off the reefs and 
to show us the way to safe wharfage, seeming to say, " Yonder is a path of waves ! Ride 
into peace ! Accept the welcome of this island continent !" 

It was half-past seven o'clock when the great screw of our steamer ceased to swirl the 
waters, and the gang-plank was lowered and we descended to the firm land, our name called 
as we heard it spoken by a multitude who were there to greet us. Strange sensation was 
it, 10,000 miles from home, to hear our name pronounced by those whose faces we had 
never seen before, and whose faces could be only dimly seen now by the lanterns on the 
docks and the lights of our ship, just halted after a long voyage. What made the night to 
me more memorable, was that I was suddenly informed that at eight o'clock I was to 
lecture in their hall, and thirty minutes was short time to allow a poor sailor like myself to 
get physical and mental equipoise, after twenty-one days' pitching. But at eight o'clock I 
was ready and confronted a throng of people, cordial and genial as any one ever saluted 
from platform or pulpit. 

I told how for many days I had been looking off upon a great ocean of ipecac, but that 
I had not wanted, as many say under such circumstances, to be thrown overboard, and that 
I did not think any one ever did want to be thrown overboard, and reminded them of the 
sea-sick voyager, who said he wished to be thrown into the sea, and the captain had a 
sailor dash on him a pail full of cold ocean water, and when the .soaked and shivering man 
protested and asked what the captain meant by such an insult, the captain replied, " You 
wanted to be thrown overboard, and I thought I would let you try how you liked a bucket 
of the water before j'ou took the whole ocean. " 

Never so glad were we to stand on firm land as the night of our arrival at .Auckland. 
Wondrous New Zealand ! Few people realize how it was discovered. They tell us of 
Captain Cook and of Dutch navigators, but all the i.slands of the South Sea, as well as this 
immense New Zealand, were discovered as a result of the effort to watch the transit of \'enus 
over the sun's disk from the South vSeas. The Royal Society of Great Britain scut out ships 
for this purpose, and Captain Cook, and the astronomers and the botanists wlio accompanied 
him on his voyage, were only the agents of science. How the interests of this world are 
linked with the behavior of other worlds, and how tlie fact mentioned suggests that most of 
the valuable things known in this wf)rld have been found out while looking for something 
else, and what sublimity all thi= gives to the work of the explorer ; the transit of Venus, an 
island of light, resulting in the transit of many islands from the unknown into the well 
known. But the prowess of such men can never be fully a])prcciated. The sea captain 
who puts out in this day of charts and navigating apparatus with a ship of 10,000 
tons for another hemisphere, daring typhoons and cyclones, strange currents and hidden 

(107) 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 109 

rocks, must be a brave man ; but who can measure the courage of Cabot, or Marco Polo, or 
Captain Cook, sailing out into unknown seas, across wildernesses of water that have never 
been mapped, in ships of 200 tons, discovering rocks only by running upon them, and met 
on shore by savages ready to scalp or roast them. These challengers of tempest and 
cannibalism and oceanic horror must have had nerve and valor beyond that of any other 
heroes. Such men set New Zealand as a gem into the crown of the world's geography. 
To me, and to most people who come here. New Zealand is a splendid surprise. We have 
all read so much about the superstitions and outrageous cruelties of this land in other times 
that we are startled on arriving here to find more churches in New Zealand than in 
America in proportion to the number of the population. In one village that I visited since 
coming here I find eight churches to a population of 3000 people. There are too many 
churches in many places in New Zealand and they jostle each other, and contend for right 
of possession, hindering each other and half starving many of their ministers, as is sure to 
be the case when there are too many churches and consequently not enough support for 
every one of them. 

Another surprise to me is that female suffrage is in full blast. I found elegant ladies 
telling of their experience at the ballot box, and I hereby report to the. .Vmerican ladies 
now moving for the right of female suffrage that New Zealand is clear ahead of them, and 
that the experiment has been made here successfull>'. Instead of the ballot box degrading 
woman, woman is here elevating the ballot box, and why in New Zealand, or America, or 
anywhere else, should man be so afraid to let women have a vote, as though man himself 
had made such a grand use of it. Look at the illiterates and the incompetents who have 
been elected to office, and see how poorly the masculines have exercised the right of suf- 
frage. Look at the governments of nine-tenths of the American cities and see what work 
the ballot box has done in the possession of man. Man at the ballot box is a failure; give 
woman a chance. I am not clear that governmental affairs will be made any better by the 
change, but they cannot be any worse. New Zealand has tried it, let England and America 
try it. ■ It is often said in America that if women had the right to vote they would not 
e-xercise it. For the refutation of that theory I put the fact that in the last election in New 
Zealand, of 109,000 women who registered 90,000 have voted, while of the 193,000 men 
who registered only 129,000 have voted. This ratio shows that women are more an.xious 
to vote than men. Perhaps woman will yet save politics. I know the charge that she is 
responsible for the ruin of the race, since she first ate the forbidden fruit in Paradise, 
but I think there is a chapter in that matter of Edenic fruit not written. I think that 
Adam, when he saw Eve eating that apple, asked for a bite, and, getting it into his pos.ses- 
sion, ate the most of it, and that he immediately sliook the tree for more apples and has 
been eating ever since. If woman did first transgress I cannot forget that slie intro- 
duced into the world the only Being who has ever done much toward .saving it. Woman 
has started for suffrage and she is a determined and persevering creature, and .she will 
keep on until she gets it. She may yet decide the elections in England, and elect Presi- 
dents for the United States, as already she is busy in the political affairs of New Zealand. 
I was surprised also in these regions to find how warmly loyal they are to old ICnglaud. I 
had heard that they had become somewhat impatient of their governmental mother. But 
this is not so. They practically have things their own way, electing their own Parliament, 
and all governors sent out from the old country arc such men as arc agreeable, and the 
people are required to pay no tax to the British crown, and they arc in good humor with 
the Briti.sh flag. 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



I addressed an audience last night, on my right hand the United States flag, on my 
left hand the English flag, and you ought to have heard them shout when, at the beginning 
of my address I said, " When in my church at home I pray for the President of the United 
States I am very apt to add God save the Queen." 

Many of the streets of New Zealand cities are called after the generals and the 
ffir -^ ~ - 1 ,' - r~ ~ ■ fli prime ministers of 

Great Britain ; 
Wellington and 
Palmerston and 
Gladstone are the 
names of great 
thoroughfares. 
New Zealand 
feels the finan- 
cial depression 
very much, as 
the whole world 
at this time seems 
suffering an epi- 
demic. Indeed, 
the world is now 
a compressed and 
interlocked affair. 
Out of the hold 
of our ship ar- 
riving in New 
Zealand were lift- 
ed rakes, plows, 
and various agri- 
cultural imple- 
ments of Ameri- 
can manufacture. 
To-day all New 
Zealand is rejoic- 
ing that the 
American Con- 
gress has put 
wool on the free 
list, and the value 
of the sheep on 
all these hillsides 
is augmented. 
Among our 

most interesting hours in New Zealand were those spent at the Bishop's house in Auck- 
land, lyord Bishop Cowie is a man of marvelous attractiveness, and his home is an 
enchantment, adorned with many curios which he brought from India when he served 
as chaplain diiring that war which interests and appalls the world with its tales of mutiny. 




MAORI WOMliN SALl TI-NG, NEW ZEALAND. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



While chaplain, he rode with Sir Colin Campbell and his historical host for the capture 
of L/Ucknow — that city whose name will stand in the literature of all ages as the synonym 
for Sepoy atrocities, and womanly fortitude and Christian heroics. He told us most 
graphically how the women waiting for death at Lucknow tore up their underclothes to 
make bandages for the wounds of the soldiers, and that when at last these women were 
rescued they appeared in the brilliant dress of the ball-room — these dresses formerly worn 
by the convivial having been suddenly come upon, and when the wives and daughters of 
missionaries and Christian merchants had nothing else to wear. 

Lord Bishop Cowie also had on his walls pictures of some of the most stirring scenes 
of the Russian war with which the military friends of the Bishop had been cognizant. 




IN THE SUBURBS OP AUCKLAND. 

Here is a pictured scene where there was no retreat for the English, and yet their standing 
firm seemed certain destruction, and their general cried out : " Men ! there is no retreat 
from this place ; you will die here !" and the men replied : " Aye, aye ; we are ready to do 
that !" And yonder another pictured scene of Balaklava, after the famous charge of the 
Six Hundred, and the commander said to the few men who had got back from the awful 
charge : " Men, it was a mad-brained trick," and they replied, " Never mind, General ; we 
would do it again." The Bishop's walls in other places were made interesting by swords, 
belts and torn insignia of battle from the fields of India, all the more interesting because 
we expect, in our journey around the world, to visit Lucknow, and Cawnpore, and Delhi, 
and many of the chief places made immortal by the struggle between British valor and 



112 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

Sepoy infamy. And here, from the Bishop's own words, I got a satisfactory answer to a 
question that I have asked many times, but for which I never received a satisfactory answer. 
I said, " Your Lordship knew the chief men of Balaklava, and will you please explain to 
me what I have never been able to find out, and to which Tennyson makes reference in his 
* Charge of the Light Brigade,' and in that line where he says, ' Some one had blundered.' 
Do you know, and will you tell me, exactly what that blunder was ?" He said, " I can, and 
will." Then the Bishop illustrated with knives and forks and napkin rings on the dining 
table the position of the English guns, the Russian guns, and the troops. He demonstrated 
to me plainly what the military blunder was that caused the dash and havoc of that cavalry- 
regiment whose click of spurs, and clatter of hoofs, and jingle of bits, and spurts of blood 
you hear in the Poet Laureate's battle hymn. Here was the line of the English guns, not 
very well defended, and yonder was the line of Russian guns, backed by the whole Russian 
army. The order was given to the cavalry regiment to take care of those English guns 
and keep them from being taken by the Russians, and the command was, " Take care of 
those English guns !" But the words were misunderstood, and it was supposed that the 
order was to capture the Russian artillery. Instead of the command, " Take care of those 
English guns !" it was thought the command was, " Take those Russian guns !" For that 
ghastly and horrible assault of the impossible, the riders plunged their spurs and headed 
their horses into certain death. At last I had positive information as to what the blunder 
at Balaklava was. At Edinburgh, Scotland, years ago, I asked one of the soldiers who rode 
in that charge the same question, but even he, a participant in the scenes of that fiery day, 
could not tell me just what the blunder was. 

Now I have it at last not only told in the stirring words of a natural orator and 
magnetic talker, but on the dining table of the Lord Bishop of Auckland I had it set out 
before the eye, dramatized and demonstrated by the cutlery on the white tablecloth ; but 
instead of the steel bayonets, the silver forks of a beautiful repast ; and instead of the 
sharp swords of death, knives for bread-cutting ; and instead of the belching guns of 
destruction, the napkin rings of a hospitality the memory of which shall be bright and 
fresh as long as I remember this visit to New Zealand. 



CHAPTER IX. 

LECTURE AT AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND.— "THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THINGS." 

OHE probable time of our arrival at Auckland, New Zealand, had been heralded 
before, by letters to friends, as well as by press announcements, but I was 
surprised upon landing to find the crowd in waiting so large, especially as the 
ship was nearly twelve hours behind the time of her expected coming, and 
darkness had begun to settle upon the harbor. A vast sea of faces and a shout of welcome 
greeted us from the dock, and as quickly as the vessel could be boarded from the wharf I 
was cordially received by representatives from the Ministers' and the Young Men's 
Christian Association, and hurried to the Opera House. There was no time allowed for 
any formal ceremonies, which usually make receptions tedious, for when I left the ship it 
was half past seven o'clock or within half an hour of the time that the committee had 
made arrangements for me to lecture to the people. But the crowd had first gathered at the 
wharf, and promptly repaired to the Opera House which was soon filled to its utmost and 
though my physical condition was very far from excellent, I had not the heart to disappoint 
the people, so I lectured to them on " The Bright Side of Things," as follows : 

IvADiES AND Gentlemen : — It is eight o'clock now, and just a half hour ago I stepped 
ashore after a voyage of twenty-two days from San Francisco to New Zealand. But I hope 
to gain equilibrium enough to address you. If we leave to the evolutionists to guess where 
we came from, and to the theologians to prophesy where we are going to, we still have left 
for consideration the fact that we are here. And we are here under most interesting 
circumstances. Of all the centuries this is the best century, and of all the decades of the 
century this is the best decade, and of all the years of the decade this is the best year, and 
of all the months of the year this is the best month, and of all the nights of the month this 
is the best night. We are at the very acme of history. It took all the ages to make this 
minute possible. I am very thankful for this hearty reception, and the only return I can 
make for your kindness is to ask you to come and see us. Come to New York, come to 
Brooklyn, come to my house, but do not all come at once. This is a very pleasant world to 
live in. If you and I had been consulted as to which of all the stars we would choose to 
walk upon, we could not have done a wiser thing than to select this. I have always been 
glad that I got aboard this planet. The best color that I can think of for the sky is blue, for 
the foliage is green, for the water is crystalline flash. The mountains are just high enough, 
the flowers sufiiciently aromatic, the earth just right for solidity and curve. The human 
face is admirably adapted for its work ! Sunshine in its smile : Tempest in its frown. 
Two eyes, one more than absolutely necessary, so that if one is put out, we still can look 
iipon the sunrise and the faces of our friends. One nose, which is quite sufiicient for those 
who walk among so many nuisances, being an organ of two stops and adding dignity to the 
human face whether it have the graceful arch of the Roman, or turn up toward the heavens 
with celestial aspirations, or wavering up and down, now as if it would aspire, and now as if 
it would descend, until suddenly it shies off" into an unexpected direction, illustrating the 
proverb that " it is a long lane which has no turn." 
8 (113) 



114 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



Standing before any specimen of sculpture or painting or architecture, a dozen different 
men will have a dozen different sentiments and opinions. That is all right. We cannot all 
think alike. But where is the blasphemer of his God who would criticise the arch of the 
sky, or the crest of a wave, or the flock of snow-white fleecy clouds driven by the shepherd 
of the wind across the hilly pastures of the heavens ; or the curve of a snow bank, or the 
biirning cities of the sunset, or the fern-leaf pencilings of the frost on a window pane? 
Where there is one discord there are a thousand harmonies. A sky full of robins to one 

owl croaking. Whole acres 
of meadow land to one place 
cleft of the grave digger's 
spade. To one mile of 
rapids where the river 
writhes among the rocks it 
has hundreds of miles of 
gentle flow — water lilies 
anchored, hills coming 
down to bathe their feet, 
stars laying their reflections 
to sleep in its bosom, boat- 
man's oar dropping on it 
necklaces of diamond. 
How strange that in such a 
very agreeable world there 
should be any disagreeable 
people. I am very certain 
there are none of that kind 
here to-night. I can tell 
by your looks that none 
of you belong to the class 
that I shall hold up for ob- 
servation. These husbands, 
for instance, are all what 
they ought to be ; good na- 
tured, as a May morning, 
and when the wife asks for 
a little spending money, the 
good man of the house 
says : " All right, my dear, 
here's my pocketbook, take 
as much as you want, and 
come soon again." And 
these wives always greet their husbands home with a smile, and say : "My dear, your slippers 
are ready, and the niufflns warm. Put your feet up on this cushion ! bless the dear man ! " 
These brothers prefer the companionship of their own sisters to that of anybody else's 
•sisters, and take them out almost every night to lectures and concerts, and I suppose that 
in no other building to-night in all the world is a more mild, affable or genial collection of 
people than ourselves. But lest in the attritions of life we should lose our present amiability, 




I 



MAORI WIDOWS. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 115 

it may be well for us to walk a little while in the Rogues' Galler}- of disagreeable people, — 
the people who make themselves disagreeable by always seeing the dark side of things — 
and then, by reaction of soul we will come to the opposite habit and indulge in the finest 
of all the fine arts, the art of looking on the bright side of things. Let me say at this point 
in my lecture that my ideas of a literary lecture are very much changed from what they 
used to be. I used to. think that a literary lecture ought to be something profound, veiy 
profound. I had three or four lectures'of that kind. They were awfull}' profound. But I 
have not delivered them for some time, for there were always two difficulties about those 
very profound lectures : the one was the audience did not know what I was talking about, 
and the other was I did not know myself And I made up my mind that a lecture ought to 
be something genial, something helpful, something full of good cheer, for if you can put 
your shoulder under my burden, you are my friend, and if I can put my shoulder under 
your burden I will prove myself your friend. Let me also say that my ideas of religion are 
a little different from some people's. My religion is sunshine, and the difference between 
earth and heaven is that the sunshine of earth sometimes gets beclouded, while heaven is 
everlasting sunshine. 

Now, in all the album of photographs that I want to put before yon to-night, there is 
no face more decidedly characteristic than that of the fault-finder. The world has a great 
many delightful people who are easily pleased. I am every day surprised to find so many 
real clever people. They have a faculty of finding out that which is most attractive. 
They never attended a concert, but they heard at least one voice that pleased them and 
wondered how in one throat God could have put such exhaustless fountains of harmony. 
They like the spring, for it is so full of bird and bloom, and like a priestess, stands swing- 
ing her censer of perfume before God's altar ; and the summer is just the thing for them, 
for they love to hear the sound of mowing machines and whole battalions of thunderbolts 
grounding arms among the mountains. And autumn is just the thing for them, for the 
orchards are golden with fruit, and the forests march with banners dipped in sunsets, and 
blood-red with the conflict of frost and storm. And they like the winter, whose snow 
showers make Parthenons and St. Mark's Cathedrals out of an old pigeon coop, and turn 
the wood-shed into a royal tower filled with crown jewels. Thus there are persons pleased 
with all circumstances. If you are a merchant, they are the people you like to have for 
customers ; if you are a lawyer, they are the people you like for clients and jurors ; if ^-ou 
are a physician, they are the people you like for patients ; but j'ou don't often get them, 
for the)' can generally cure themselves by a bottle of laughter to be taken three or four 
times a day, and well shaken up. Now, in contrast with such, how repelling is a fault- 
finder ! Some evening, resolving to be especially gracious, he starts with his family to a 
place of amusement. He scolds most of the way. He cannot afford the time or the money, 
and does not believe it will be much, anyhow. The music begins. The audience are thrilled. 
The orchestra with polished instruments warble, and weep, and thunder, and pray, and all 
the sweet sounds of the world flowering upon the strings of the bass viol, and wreathing 
the flageolets, and breathing throiigh the lips of the cornet, and shaking their flower bells 
upon the tinkling tambourine. He sits emotionless and disgusted. He goes home saying, 
" Did you see that fat musician that got so red in the face blowing on that French horn ? 
Did you ever hear such a voice as that lady had ? Why, it was a perfect squawk. The 
evening was wasted." And his companion said, "Why, my dear, you shouldn't" — "Oh," 
he says, " you be still. That's the trouble with you. You are always pleased with every- 
thing." He goes to church. Perhaps the sermon is didactic and argumentative. He 



ii6 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



yawns, he twists 'himself in the pew and pretends he is asleep, and says, " I couldn't keep 
awake. Did you ever hear anything so dead ? Can these dry bones live ?" The next 
Sunday he enters a church where the minister is given to illustration. He is still more 
displeased. He says, ' ' How dare that man bring such everyday things into the pulpit ? lie 
ought to have brought his illustrations from the cedar of L,ebanon, and the fir tree, instead 
of the hickory and the sassafras. He ought to have spoken of the Euphrates and the 

Jordan, and not of the Kenne- 
bec and the Schuylkill. He 
ought to have mentioned 
Mount Gerizim instead of the 
Catskills. Why, he ought to 
be disciplined." Perhaps, after 
a while he joins the church, 
then the church has its 
hands full. He growls and 
groans and whines all the 
way up toward the gate of 
heaven. He wishes that the 
choir would smg differ- 
ently, that the minister 




FIJI\N HOUSES 

woiild preach differently, that the elders would pray differently. They painted the church. 
He didn't like the color. They carpeted the aisle, he didn't like the figure. They 
put in a new furnace, he didn't like the patent. He wriggles, and squirms, and frets, 
and stews and stings himself. He is like a horse that, prancing and uneasy to the bit, 
worries himself into a lather of foam, while the horse hitched beside him just pulls 
straight ahead, makes no fuss, and comes to his oats in peace. Like a hedgehog, he is 
all quills. L,ike a crab that you know always goes the other way, and moves backward 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 117 

in order to go forward, and turns in four directions all at once, and the first you know 
of his whereabouts you have missed him, and when he is completely lost, he has you by the 
heel, so that the first thing you know, you don't know anything, and while you expected 
to catch the crab, the crab catches you. So some men are all crabbed, hard-shell obstinacy 
and opposition. I don't see how such a one is to get into heaven unless he goes in back- 
ward, and then there will be danger that at the gate he will try to pick a quarrel with St. 
Peter. Once in, I fear he will not like the music, and the services will be too long, and 
that he will spend the first two or three years in trying to find out whether the wall of 
heaven is exactly plumb. Let us stand off from such tendencies. We can take almost 
anything in life and read it until it is bright, or read it until it is dark. More depends 
upon ourselves than upon our surroundings. The heart right, all is right. The heart 
wrong, all is wrong. A blacksmith received a letter from his son at college. He, the 
father, being unable to read writing, with the wife went down to the butcher to get the 
letter read. The butcher was a rough man, and he took up this letter written by the son at 
college to his father, the blacksmith, and read it in hard, rough voice : 

" Dear Father : I am very sick. Send me some money. 

" Your son, John." 

The father said, " If he writes that way to his father he shan't have a cent." The 
wife said, " Hans, the butcher, is a rough man, and don't know how to read it. Let us go 
down to the baker and get the letter read. He is a mild man, and he will know how to 
read it." So they went down to the baker, who was indeed a very mild man, and he took 
up this letter and read it in soft, smooth, gentle, tender voice : 

" Dear Father : I am very sick. Send me some money. 

" Your son, John." 

The father said, "Ah, if he writes that way to his father, he shall have all he wants." 
It is the way you read it. You can take almost anything in life and read it until it is 
bright, or read it until it is dark. Listen for sweet notes rather than for discord, picking 
up marigolds and harebells in preference to thistles and coloquintida, culturing thyme and 
anemones rather than nightshade, hanging our window blinds so we can hoist them to let 
the light in ; and in a world where God hath put exquisite tinge upon the shell washed in 
the surf, and planted a paradise of bloom in a little child's cheek, and adorned the pillars 
of the rock by hanging tapestry of morning mist, the lark saying, " I will sing soprano," and 
the cascade replying, " I will carry the bass," let us leave the owl to hoot, and the frog to 
croak, and the bear to growl, and the fault-finder to complain. I would rather have a man 
go to the opposite extreme than to that. Many years ago I had a friend attending a large 
meeting in New York in honor of a foreign patriot, who had just come to the country. It 
■was a noisy meeting and the speakers did not speak very distinctly. My friend sat far 
back at the door and could not hear a word. A man just in front of him seemed to hear 
everything, and every few moments would get up with great enthusiasm and wave his hand- 
kerchief and shout, " Hurrah, hurrah !" . My friend thotight to himself, " That man 
must have a great deal better hearing than I have, for I can't hear a word." After a while 
there was something .said on the platform that seemed particularly to please the audience, 
and the gentleman in front of my friend, with more enthusiasm than ever, got up and 
waved his handkerchief and shouted, " Hurrah, hurrah !" My friend leaned over to him, 
and said, " I did not quite catch that last thing that was said ; what was it ?" The gentle- 
.man looked back, and said, " I don't know what it was, but hurrah." He had come there 




(iiSj 



i 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 119 

to be pleased anyhow. You tell me that is one extreme. I know it, but I had rather be 
on that extreme than upon the other and never be pleased with anything. 

Pass a little further in this portrait gallery, and you come to the man of bad manners, 
chiefly showing his bad manners in the fact that he finds the deficit in everythiug and the 
dark side of everything. Now, I have no liking for Beau Brummells or I^ord Chesterfields. 
I have no retaining fee from any millinery or clothing establishment. Indeed, all the fine 
clothes that a tailor's goose ever hatched out cannot make a gentleman. One day a 
company of mechanics met together and resolved that they would manufacture a gentleman. 
The bootmaker said, " I will make a gentleman's foot," and the hatter said, " I will make a 
gentleman's head," and the clothier said, " I will make a gentleman's body." The work 
was done and the man went out, but before night he did something so perfectly contempti- 
ble that everybody saw that after all he was not a gentleman. The next morning these 
mechanics were met together, and they were talking over their failure in this matter, and a 
neighbor came in and said, " Sirs, you cannot make a gentleman. God only can make that 
large-hearted, magnanimous being which we call a gentleman." A very little thing will 
show you whether a man is a gentleman or not. You do not have to see him in a variety 
of experiences before you make up your mind in regard to him, and you make it up right. 
Just as a little conversation between a man and his wife revealed all their domestic history. 
They had quarreled a good deal, and the husband had been in the habit of beating his wife 
a great deal, and he was about to leave the world, and he thought before he left the world 
he had better say something pleasant to his wife, and he said, " My dear, I am now going 
to leave the world, and I am going to heaven." " Pshaw !" she said. " You go to heaven ! 
You would look pretty stuck up in heaven !" " Well," he responded, " Bridget, bring me the 
broom, and I'll give her another walloping before I go." And you have in that little colloquy 
all their domestic history as well as if you had it in a half a dozen volumes. And so I 
have sometimes seen a man in one flash of conversation or behavior reveal all his history. 
You know him in five minutes as well as if you knew him fifty years. You say he is a 
gentleman, and he is ; or he is not, and he is not. Neither can all the arts of a dressmaker 
and perfumer make a lady, while without any embellishment you sometimes find her. I 
saw her bend over the dying soldier. Her dress was very much faded, and she came out 
from an humble home with a little basket full of delicacies on her arm. She had a boy in 
the army who, after the battle of Gettysburg, was missing. She wanted to do something 
for others. She could do nothing for him. As she walked through the wards of the 
hospital with a cheerful smile, the sick straightened the bed covers to look as well as 
possible as she passed, and coughed just to make her look that way. She cheered up 
a fevered young man 'who was homesick, and feared that he would never again see 
familiar faces. She wrote letters for him, put ice on his shattered arm, turned his hot 
pillow, offered a silent prayer, and said, " God do so to me and my soldier boy that is 
missing if I neglect to care for these poor wounded fellows," and as she passed down the 
ward, a man, hearing the whisper of others, shoves up the bandage that covers his eyes 
which had been powder-blasted, and said, " God bless her! May she get back the soldier boy 
that is missing." And a great tall captain, wounded in the foot, whispered over to a lieu- 
tenant, wounded in the head, and said, " No sham about that ; she's a lady." That vision 
of kindness lingers in this soldier's dream, and that night he thinks he is home again 
beyond the prairies. Cattle coming down the lane. The cherry trees in front of the house 
in all their shaking leaves bidding him a welcome. Arms of affection about his neck. 
Children bringing out the toys for him to look at. His little boy strutting the floor with 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



his father's knapsack on. All the household work stopped to hear of his adventures. And 
they shall meet ag^ain in heaven. Compare such a lady with a woman I saw on a street car in 
Philadelphia. A soldier came in and sat near where she was. With great indignation she got 
up and went to the opposite side of the car, and said, " Oh, the dirty fellow ! " I thought 
to myself, "There is probably more patriotism in the poorest patch on that soldier's 

back than in all the 
elegant regalia of that 
woman from the top rose 
in her hat to the toe of 
her shoe." She was not 
a lady — never will be. 
Aye, when in the street, 
or hospital , or church, or 
lecture hall, wherever 
you are, you can tell 
the lady. Two rough 
boys were riding down 
hill on a sled on a cold 
day. They could not 
guide the sled just as 
they wanted to. A lady 
was passing by. The 
sled ran against her 
and tore her dress very 
much. The boys were 
rough fellows, and stood 
back expecting a volley 
of scolding, but the lady 
looked at her dress and 
then she looked at the 
boys, and said, "Ah, 
boys, you have torn my 
dress very much." Then 
she said, " Never mind ; 
I see }'ou did not mean 
to do it. Go on with 
your fun." The bo5's 
being rough fellows, one 
of them said to the other, 
"Jim, my eyes! Ain't 
she a beauty ? " So you 
instantly detect the gen- 
tleman from one who is not. I sat in a car on a cold day coming from Philadelphia to New 
York. A man had a window up. By putting an extra shawl around me I kept quite com- 
fortable, but there was a sick lady in the back part of the car who seemed very much disturbed 
by the open window. I thought I would go over and ask the man to put it down. I took 
on all possible suavity. My best friends would not have known me. I said, "My dear sir, will 




A I,ADY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. 



THB WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. i2r 

you please to lower that window? It is disquieting a sick lady back here very much." 
He turned around and said, " No." I do not know who the man was, or who imported his 
patent leathers, or how bright the diamonds may have flashed in his cravat ; he was not a 
gentleman — never will be. You cannot make them out of such stuff. So I was in a boat 
going from Brooklyn to New York. A boy came in with almanacs for sale. With one 
hand he offered the almanacs. His other hand was all bound up and bandaged. It looked 
as if a surgeon had bound it up. A man seated next to me said, " Boy, what is the matter 
with your hand?" The boy said, "I got it crushed, and the doctor bound it ufj." The " 
man said, " Let me see it." The boy went to work and unwound it. It was an awful 
looking hand. Nobody would want to see it unless he could do it some good. After he 
got it all unwound, the man seated next to me said, " Now wind it up, wind it up ; I have 
nothing for such fellows as you." I could not restrain my indignation. I said to him, 
" Sir, that boy is engaged in a legitimate business. He is selling almanacs for a living, and 
you have no right to accost him in that way." I felt in my pockets for the loose change, 
and all the people in the boat seemed to hear the conversation, and they felt in their 
pockets for the loose change, and I think from the looks the boy carried off two or three 
dollars. I do not know who that man was ; he was far better dressed than I ; but this I do 
know in regard to him, he was not a gentleman — never will be. He was one of those 
mean kind of men you sometimes find — mean all the way down, and all the way up, and 
all the way through, forward and backward, backward and forward. Mean as the man who 
was asked by his friend if he would not take a drink. He said, " No, I never drink ; but 
I'll take a cigar and three cents." A man of good manners has a faculty of always making 
you feel good. Some day you have been soured by meanness on the part of a customer, or 
you have met with a business loss, or 5'ou have heard that hard things have been said about 
you. You feel irritated. You feel as if you could snap at the first man that speaks to you. 
In a word, you are unhappy. One. of your bright-faced, generous friends comes in, and 
says, "Good morning," in a pleasant tone. You respond in gruffest, "Good morning." 
He says, " I hear good news about you. I hear you are prospering in business. I came in 
more to congratulate you than anything else. I haven't any especial business, but must be 
going. Give ray regards to your wife. Good morning." You respond in blandest tones, 
" Good morning." He was there only half a minute, but he has left you saturated with 
good humor. In other words, you have felt the generous touch of a generous nature: In 
other words, he is a gentleman. 

Again you felt just the opposite. You got up with the sun, sang at the breakfast 
table, whistled all the way to business, when an ill-mannered acquaintance conies in. He 
says, "Are you at all embarrassed in business?" You say, "No, why do you ask that?" 
" Oh," he says, " nothing, nothing." " But," you say, " there must have been some reason 
for asking that, or you wouldn't have asked it." " Well," he says, " if you will have it, I 
heard on the street that you are going to burst up. How is that ? " You go down the street 
vexed and enraged, to lash this man with your tongue, and question that, imtil you are 
worked up into a fury, and the pickpocket who stole your purse was more of a gentleman 
than this man who stole your good humor. You sometimes find a person in a community 
without any particular attribute of wit or humor, yet by kindliness of spirit, genial behavior, 
looking on the bright side of things, trying to get others to look on the bright side of 
things, keeping a whole drawing-room, aye, a whole neighborhood in good cheer. Just as 
in early spring you go into the garden and you say, " Where is that flower? " " Oh, here it is, 
a violet ! " considering itself no doubt a very insignificant flower, yet filling the whole yard 



123 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



"with fragrance ; so there are persons who consider themselves perfectly insignificant, yet by 
the aroma of a Christian character and genialty of behavior keep all their surroundings 
happy. There is no more winsome art than that of saying pleasant things in a pleasant 
way, and no more distasteful and offensive character than that which always has something 
nettlesome to mention. One spring morning I was on my way to the cars, going through 
the New York market, and was in a good deal of a hurry, but I heard one boy say to 
another, "Joe, you will lose on them green peas." Although I was in a hurry I had to stop. 
I said to him, " How do you know he will lose on them green peas ? From the looks of I 
the boy and the looks of the peas I don't think he is going to lose on them." Now, my J 




B-^NANA 1 \ll IN IIJI IbLAND 

friends, if that boy was going to lose on " them green peas," would he not find it out soon 
enough? I never would take the responsibility of telling any man or any boy that he was 
going to lose "on them green peas." The fact is, some people are miserable themselves, 
and they want to make everybody else miserable. Indeed, there are some people who are 
not happy unless they are miserable ! They have a kind of miserable happiness, or a happy 
miserableness. I do not exactly know what it is. If there is one lank sheep in the pasture 
field all the crows within ten miles know it, and are ready to sit in post-mortem examination 
when the carcase drops. And there are some men who have a faculty for finding out 
everything that is weak in character, and are watching to see if it will not become carrion* 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 123 

They say unpleasant things about your walk, about your clothes, about }our friends, about 
your church, about your club-room. If they find a half dozen people engaged in pleasant 
chat they are sure to break in upon them with some disagreeable subject. If your father 
was so unfortunate as to have been hung, they will persist in discussing with you capital 
punishment, or go dragging a long rope through the room. If you failed in business, they will 
make cutting remarks about bankruptcy laws and two-thirds enactments. They have always 
heard something unpleasant about you, and feel it their duty just to let you know all about 
it. They go through the world fulfilling what the Good Book says when it calls them 
*' whisperers." They go all through community whispering and whispering, and that is all 
they are good for. They always have suspicions about your health, and sometimes when you 
feel a little weary, they accost you with, " Why, how bad you do look ! " I had a brother who 
was going through one of the back streets of Brooklyn one day, when a man came up to 
him and said, " Are you the man on this street that is dying with consumption ? " My 
brother said, " No, I guess there is nothing the matter with me." "Well," said the man, 
*' I was looking for a man on this street who is dying with consumption, and I thought from 
your looks that you must be the man." " No," said my brother, " I am a minister and I 
stay in the house a good deal, and I suppose it makes me look a little pale, and I have been 
a minister for about fifteen years, and I suppose that during that time I have buried about 
fifty fat-looking fellows just like you." Sometimes it is not so much in words that they 
offend as in their way of doing things. For a good, hearty, natural eccentricity we have 
no dislike. What a stupid world this would be if all the people were alike. God never 
repeats Himself, and He never intended two men to be alike, or two women to be alike, or 
two children to be alike. Our peculiarities are the cogs of the wheel showing where we 
are to play in the great divine mechanism. God makes us all differently, but societ}' comes 
along with its conventionalities and tries to make us all alike, and in proportion as it 
makes us all alike, makes us useless. Everybody excused Horace Greeley's peculiar garb, 
and Rev. Dr. McClellan, of the Reformed Church, one of the mightiest men of this century, 
who used to put his shoes under the pulpit sofa, and then preach in his stocking feet. 
Once while I was riding with him, my father having sent me down to bring the doctor to the 
village to preach, and I was the boy driving, and we had a very lazy horse, and I was losing 
all my patience on the lazy horse, instead of sympathizing with me, the doctor would get up 
in the back part of the wagon and quote Greek epigrams, and then cry out at the top of his 
voice, " A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse ! " Now, I like to hear Shakespeare 
quoted as well as anybody, but not under such embarrassing circumstances. Still I excused 
him. I said, that is a little peculiar, that is all. Men often have harmless eccentricities, but 
there are oddities that are criminal, for the reason that they make inroads upon the happiness 
of others. If duty demand that we go straight across the wishes of others, then we must go 
straight across them. We despise a man who always waits to hear what other people say 
before he says anything. But the most vigorous and energetic means may often be conducted 
with gentleness. Luther's energy would have been mightily helped by Melanchthon's 
suavity. A June morning will bring out more flowers than all the blustering Januarys ever 
created. Society will bear anything sooner than a bear. In a former pastoral charge there 
was in attendance upon my ministry a very good man who had one or two offensive 
peculiarities. When the church was particularly silent and solemn, he would give one of 
those awful sneezes that you sometimes may have heard that seem as if the very foundations 
of the earth were being ripped out. Now, man has certain inalienable rights, among 
which are life, liberty and the privilege of sneezing when he feels like it. Indeed, when 



124 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



one feels a peculiar irritation in the inner membrane of the nose that disposes him to a 
convulsive ejection of air through the nose, I consider it his positive and bounden duty to 
sneeze ; but I set it down to the score of bad manners that the man of whom I speak 
would so often in the most solemn parts of the discourse take out his handkerchief, make 
up a peculiar face and sneeze. Oh, how important it is that parents should educate their 
children in good manners. How much chagrin the)' would save themselves and their 
children. General Scott was visiting at a friend's house in New York. The gentleman of 
the house wanted his son to be acquainted with General Scott. He said, " Here, George, 
this is General Scott." George was one of those saucy, uncontrollable sort of boys you 
sometimes find, and he came up and said, " Are you General Scott ? " " Yes, I am General 




NEW ZEALAND SCENERY. 

Scott." " Are you the General Scott that was at Ivundy's L,ane ? " " Yes, I was at Lundy's 
Lane." "Are \'ou the General Scott that was in Mexico?" " Yes, I was in Mexico." 
" Are you the General Scott that ran for the Presidency, and got licked ? " " Yes," said he, 
" I ran for the Presidency, but did not get in." " Are you the General Scott that they call 
'Old Fuss and Feathers?' " Then the father said, "Get out of the room, George, I will 
not have General Scott insulted in that way." You and I have seen the same thing on a 
smaller scale many and many a time. No one is well behaved who has no regard for times 
and circumstances. While we have no respect for one of those obsequious mortals whom 
we call the fop or the dandy — all curls and watch-chain jingle and squirm and strut and 
pocket handkerchief and ah's and oh's and he-he-he's, and wriggle and namby-pambyism 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 125 

— we have just as little regard for him who through recklessness of demeanor breaks 
through all the proprieties of life as a drove of swine break through a blossoming hedge 
that surrounds a flower garden. L,et two young men go out into the world, one with 
^20,000 of capital to start with, but bad manners, and the other with no capital at all but good 
tnanners, and the latter will surpass the former in all the great struggles of life. Every 
man that has come to any years knows that is so, yet the general impression is, if a man be 
urbane and courteous he is weak. They say he is very polite, but he is soft. I had a friend 
-who many years ago was visiting in the city of Washington. He was in the office of a 
Senator distinguished for great statesmanship, but for no politeness. The young man who 
had come to Washington and wanted to see the distinguished men of the day, knocked at 
the Senator's door. The Senator in a gruff voice shouted, " Come in." The young man 
entered, and as he had not any especial errand, but only wished to see the distinguished 
gentleman, he felt a little awkward and did not know what to do with his hands. The 
Senator said to him, " What do you want, sir ? " He said, " Well, — I — well, — I don't know 
— nothing." The Senator then said, " Then get out of the room. Why do you come here 
to bother me, if you don't want anything ? " My friend was afterward in the room of 
Henry Clay, and a young man, who had come to Washington and wanted to see the 
distinguished men of the day, knocked at Mr. Clay's door. Mr. Clay said, " Come in." 
The young man entered. Mr. Clay by one flash of gentlemanly instinct, knew what the 
young man wanted, advanced and gave him his hand and said, " Good morning, sir. I am very 
glad to see you. Walk in. I am very busy now with these papers, but here are some books 
and pictures and curiosities, and I hope you will make 3^ourself very much at home." My 
friend said the young man seemed as much at home as though he were in his father's house. 
And yet it was no evidence of weakness or effeminacy on the part of that man, for when a 
Speaker of the House of Representatives — that difficult position, held successfully only by 
three or four men since the foundation of the American government, and where the most 
vigorous pounding of the gavel on the desk could not keep order — it was said that when 
Mr. Clay was presiding and there was any uproar in the House, he never pounded with the 
gavel at all, but would take a penknife from his pocket and tap upon the desk. Those who 
were talking hushed up. Those who were standing sat down. Only a penknife, but it 
sounded like a thunderbolt. So you see that politeness and suavity are no indication of 
"weakness or effeminacy on the part of a man. A man may be courteous and urbane and 
yet strong for the great battle of life. Hear it, young man, hear it. 

We pass on in this gallery of disagreeable people to see the lounger — the man who 
always comes at the wrong time, and stays until you are exhausted. We say of such a 
one, " He is a perfect bore." You have all, in your different occupations and professions, 
been disturbed by this class of persons. I know of no greater joy in life than that of 
entertaining our friends when they come to see us. We rush out into the hall to meet 
them. A pain strikes us to the heart when they leave us. We give them the best ann- 
chair in our parlor. We give them the softest bed in our house. We deny ourselves many 
luxuries when we are alone that when they come we may have more wherewith to make 
them comfortable and happy. We always live better when we have company. Yet there 
are persons who are always apologizing when you are at their table — apologizing for the 
bread and the butter and the tea, and trying to give you the idea that they always have it 
better than just at that time when you happen to be there. Now, what is the use of lying? 
Perhaps it is winter, and one of our old school-mates or college-mates has come. We pull 
aip our chairs around the stove or register, and in true American style put our feet up higher 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 127 

than our heads so that all the sensibilities and excellencies of our entire physical nature 
seem, by the greater elevation of our feet, to flow back into the heart and the brain. We 
talk over old times, sleigh rides, skatings under moonlight, romantic rambles through the 
woods on a summer day with some fair, rosy-cheeked, laughing-eyed — second cousin. 
We talk it all over. The fire burns and the midnight hovers. You talk over the past, and 
laugh and cry until you are startled as the clock strikes, " One — two," and you go to bed 
humming to yourself, 

" Should auld acquaintance be forgot 
And nevei- brought to min' ? 
Should auld acquaintance be forgot, 
And days of auld lang syne ?" 

But are there no persons in this community who have pestered you, as follows ? They 
have nothing to do, and suppose that you have not. They come and sit all around the 
room. They have nothing to say, but expect you to entertain them. They take out their 
watch and say, "Well, I guess I must go." You, out of politeness, say, "You need not be 
in a hurry," when, to your horror, they sag back for another two hours' heat. They discuss 
the weather. They tell you some old story in a very feeble way and expect you to laugh. 
They sit, and you look at your watch hoping they will take the hint ; but they sit. You 
go and take another chair, hoping to break up the monotony ; but they sit. You keep 
drumming your fingers nervously on the table, or tapping your foot on the floor, trying to 
fill up the time ; but they sit. You get desperate, and feel as if you could fly. They do not 
observe it. When your time is utterly exhausted, and the idea you wanted to put upon 
paper has flown, and it is too late to do the work you proposed, he gets up slowly, takes a 
great while to button his coat, moves out of the room at a snail's pace, keeps you standing 
at the front door long enough to take a bad cold, and then goes down the road to practice 
his outrages upon somebody else. Compared with such annoyance, blessed is seasickness, 
blessed is gout, blessed is the influenza, blessed are mosquitoes and fleas and bumblebees 
and grandfather-long-legs, blessed all cutaneous irritations, blessed the hot nights when you 
cannot sleep — blessed everything. When I see one of those bores coming down the street, 
I cross over or go clear around the block. I think one of the greatest bores in all the 
world is the speaking bore — the man who, at the Sunday-school meeting, or the church 
meeting, or the educational meeting, or the political meeting, always has the floor. He 
must speak or burst. He has an example ; he has a precedent for speaking. Balaam's 
traveling companion spoke, so he must speak. One of this sort arose in a legislature where 
some educational question was before the House, and said, " Mr. Chairman, I go in for 
eddication. In the words of the eminent Shakespeare, as he fell mortally wounded at the 
battle of Waterloo, ' Ignorance is played out. E pluribus unum ! Hie, haec, hoc f 
Suairter in mode' Mr. Chairman, I am sorry to see you smile at that word ' E pluribus 
unum,' for that was the sacred name of George Washington's mother. If it hadn't been 
for Providence, eddication and two or three other gentlemen, I should have been as ignorant 
as you are !" How many meetings have been talked to death by the speaking bore. I have 
seen Sunday Schools go right down under the process. They hardly ever breathed again. 

We pass on in this portrait gallery and stand before the man perpetually despondent 
and lachrymose, or, to use the common phrase, the man who always has the blues, always 
sees the dark side of things. There is no exemption from misfortune. The great and wise 
all had their share. Samuel Boyse, the accomplished author, was found famished with a 
pen in his hand. Richard Savage died in a prison for a debt of eight pounds. The poet 



128 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

Crabbe walked all night on Westminster Bridge, because too poor to pay for a lodging. 
Homer, it is said, had his mouth oftener filled with verses than with bread. Fielding, who 
tickled the world's fancy with the story of Tom Jones, was buried among paupers at Lisbon 
without a stone to mark his grave. Butler, after throwing the world into fits of laughter 
with Hndibras, starved to death for lack of a crust. Tasso, in a sonnet, begs the light of 
a cat's eye that he may see to write, because he cannot afford a candle. The greatest 
of Italian comedians is refused admittance into the hospital, that in better days he had 
built with money from his own pocket. John Wesley got pelted with stones. Milton was 
blind. Young's " Night Thoughts " were the cypress that grew on the grave of his 
darling child. And there is not in all this house an eye that has never wept, or a heart 
that has never been broken. But there are alleviations in every trouble, and paradoxical 
as it may seem, I think that the people who have had the most trouble are the happiest. 
The vast majority of those who go howling on their way, have comparatively little to vex 
them. We excuse a man for occasional depression just as we endure a rainy day. With 
overshoes and umbrella we go cheerfully through the storm, because we know that soon the 
heavens will shatter into sunshine. But who could endure three hundred and sixty-five 
days of cold drizzle ? Yet there are men who are without cessation, sombre and charged 
with evil prognostications. They do not realize their position. They are like the snake 
that the Irishman killed. He killed the snake, but it would keep on wagging its tail until 
the sun went down. So he kept on killing it, and a neighbor came up and said, " Patrick, 
what do you keep killing that snake for? It has been dead ever so long." Patrick 
answered, " Yes, I know it is dead, but the crayther isn't sinsible of it." We may be born 
with a foreboding and melancholy temperament, but that is no excuse why we should yield 
to it any more than a man born with a revengeful spirit should yield to that. We often 
hear people say, " Oh, I have a bad temper naturally, and I am not responsible." You are 
responsible. By the grace of God, you can have your temper changed. There is a way of 
shuffling the burden from shoulder to shoulder. In the lottery of life there are more prizes 
drawn than blanks. Whole orchards of " fall pippins" to one tree of crab apples. But 
one unfortunate pair of Siamese twins to millions of people happily born. To one misfor- 
tune fifty advantages. How important it is that parents who woiild have their children 
come up good and Christian, should teach them that religion itself instead of being a 
gloomy, doleful thing, is really the brightest, the most radiant, the most jubilant, the most 
triumphant thing that ever came down from heaven. Sunday morning comes in a house- 
hold. The father comes from his room to the room in which the children are, and he 
says, " Hush ! Throw out those flowers. Close that melodeon. The children will get down 
* Owen on Spiritual Mindedness,' and ' Edwards' on the Affections,' and ' Boston's Four- 
fold State,' and we will have an awful time. It is Sunday !" Sunday comes in another 
household, and the father comes from his room to the room where his children are, and he 
says, " Come, children, this is the best day and the happiest day of all the week. Throw 
back the shutters and let the sun in. Jennie will sit down at the melodeon or the piano, 
and get ready to play, while the other children get down the hymn-books, and prepare to 
sing ' Shining Shore,' and ' Rest for the Weary,' and ' Hallelujah, 'tis done,' as soon as I 
have read this Psalm of David, ' Praise the L,ord, mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and 
all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl, let everything that hath 
breath praise the Lord.' " 

"The Hill of Zion yields, 

A thousand sacred sweets, 
Before we reach the heavenly fields 

Or walk the golden streets. ' ' 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 129 

" Sing ! while I beat time for you." And let me say that a man who can sing and won't 
sing deserves to be sent to Sing-sing. Despondency is the most unprofitable feeling a man 
can have. Hyacinth is the only flower that I know of that will start best in a dark cellar. 
Ten raw cloudy days may pass along a garden without winning a smile from a single 
flower ; but no sooner does the sun look out than hundreds of carnation roses put up their 
lips to be kissed, and blush clear down to their shoulders. Good cheer divides our burdens 
and carries three-fourths of them. We all cry enough, God knows. We all cry enough 
and have enough to cry about, and if we could not sometimes be let up from the struggle 
of life, I do not know what would become of us. One good hearty laugh is a bombshell 
exploding in the right place, while spleen and discontent are a gun that kicks over the 
man that shoots it off. There is hardly anything impossible to the man who expects to 
succeed. Lack of acquaintance with the laws of health often results in depression of 
spirits. I have known people who for years have not experienced buoyancy of feeling, 
simply because they always take a late supper. Tell me what a man eats, when he eats, 
and how long it takes him to eat, and I will tell you his disposition, and out of a thousand 
cases I will not make one mistake. A man will go to the store in the morning and find 
business matters all complicated. He cannot see how he is going to raise the money to 
meet those notes, and fears that everything is going to ruin. He feels like the man who 
was going up Broadway, New York, in the midst of the financial panic of 1857. He had 
a note in the bank, and no money to meet the note. It was five minutes of three o'clock, 
and the bank to close at three. All absorbed about that note in the bank and no money to 
pay it, in his haste he ran against a man, and the man cried out, " Who are j'ou running 
against ? Do that again, and I will knock you into the middle of next week." He replied, 
*' I wish you would. That's just where I want to be with my note." So everything in the 
case I am speaking of may seem to be foreboding, when the fact is that business matters 
are not at all desperate. What is the matter? Has some evil spirit during the night 
■entered the store and robbed the safe, and changed the figures in the account book, and 
stirred everything into disorder ? No. This is the secret. Last night at eleven o'clock, at 
a friend's house, he took lobsters. He didn't get his usual refreshment in sleep. In his 
dream he saw his grandmother and two or three great-aunts in coal-scuttle bonnets. The 
nightmare first balked and then ran away with him. Lack of exercise is a source of 
■depression. Without exercise, the fluids of the body cannot be rightly prepared nor the 
solids become strong and firm. There is an idea abroad that exercise is important only for 
the student. That is a mistake. The merchant needs it ; the mechanic needs it ; the 
housewife needs it. You may work day after day to perfect fatigue, but that is not 
exercise. You need' a change from the routine of life. The amount of money and time 
expended in reasonable recreation would be a profitable investment. You would add ten 
years to your life, and in business you would in the course of the year sell more goods, 
make more garments, fashion more chairs, build more houses, make more boots, roof 
more buildings, shoe more horses, grind more corn. The attention of the world is being 
drawn to this subject. 

Gymnasiums have been established in all our towns and cities. I am glad to know 
that this institution is becoming better understood. The gymnasium was formerly looked 
upon as a place where pugilists went to get muscle — a college to graduate Heenans. Now, 
in all our gymnasiums you find the first merchants, physicians, mechanics, clergymen. ]\Ien 
of science swinging dumb-bells. Millionaires turning somersaults. Lawyers upside down 
ianging by one foot from the rung of a ladder. The doctor of divinity with coat off striking 
9 




(13°) 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS IN SYDNEY WHICH SURPRISED US WITH THEIR ATTRACTIONS 



• THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 131 

out from the shoulder against a " punching bag," imagining how it would be if it were 
a controversial fight, and the bag getting punched were an opposing bishop. Rheumatics 
and neuralgias and kindred diseases hung up until dead on " parallel bars " like two rows 
of army deserters. Dyspepsia climbing out of sight on a rope ladder. Old age dancing 
itself young again on a "spi-ing-board." Gout, erysipelas, dropsies and consumptions on a 
" wooden horse," riding out of remembrance. As a preventive and corrective of disease 
and the consequent mental depression, I recommend the gymnasium in many cases as better 
than all " Plantation Bitters," and pain-killers, and elixirs, and panaceas, and cataplasms, and 
S. T. X.'s, and U. Y. G.'s and all the other board fence literature of the country. But those 
who can get into the country and have the time and the means, will find the open air the 
best of all gymnasiums. God built it and hoisted into its dome more glory than can be 
crowded into a thousand St. Peters. The steep hillside is the best ladder to run up. 
Forests tossing in the wind are the best boxing school. Do you own a horse ? Have him 
well groomed until every hair glistens and the long mane ripples over his neck, and from 
nostrils down over the haunches unto the fetlock ; be he bay, black, dun, chestnut or sorrel, 
there is nothing wanting. Have him brought out. Put the bucket to his mouth and hear 
the water rattle down his throat in great swallows. Give him a gentle patting on the 
shoulder, call him by a pet name, and then putting your left foot into the stirrup, vault 
into the saddle. Now, sail ahead. Let him leap, and prance, and champ his bit, and snort 
with pride as he careers along the highway. Your blood will tingle. You will feel as if 
you were flying. Health will come with every bounce. Let him trot, amble, gallop and 
his hoofs strike fire. Keep a stiff rein, pass everything on the turnpike, and with the 
keenest appetite you ever had come to supper. There is something wrong in that man's 
heart who does not admire a horse. William HI., Charles II., George I. found their chief 
amusement in his companionship, and the man who will abuse a horse — I say it deliber- 
ately — a man who will abuse a horse deserves to be kicked by a mule. Do you own a pair 
of skates ? Wrap yourself warm, start for the pond, sit down on the bank, strap on the 
skates- so that they can't turn, and then strike otit. Carve all the hieroglyphics of sport 
with your heel on the ice. Wheel round and round, now on one foot, now on the other, 
backward, forward, like a swallow skimming a brook, like a deer chased across the snow by 
the Laplander, swift as the hare with lugs flat back on Marlborough Downs, as an antelope 
over the plain, voices calling, pond resounding, steel skates ringing, hands clapping, hills 
echoing. Sportfulness is a queen, who often sits in a palace of ice, with sceptre of icicle 
and orchestra in which northern blasts sound their horn, and such come nearest her throne 
who approach with skater's tippet and sandals of clattering steel. But I do not know any 
army of horrors that can withstand an attack from a regiment with balls and bats. From 
the ball that the boy of four years rolls across the carpet until his mother catches it, to that 
which is flung up by the muscular arm of the sportsman in the sight of five thousand people 
come out in the suburbs to see the carnival, there is something bewitching about its bounce 
and flight. Every Roman villa had its place for this exercise. France had houses built 
especially for ball playing. Henry VII. and Maximilian engaged in this sport. German 
professors, weary of making dictionaries, come out to join in it, and we all at school used to 
take the bat, put spittle on one side of it, and then throw it up to see who should have the 
first stroke, and we had many a sharp sting from the ball that struck us before we got to 
the hunk. 

People who have spent fortunes at Saratoga and Sulphur Springs and Baden-Baden 
to o-et away from bodily disease, and came liome unbcnefited, have found out afterward 



132 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

that their ailments were unable to keep up with tliem in their swift turns at cricket, and 
the invalids in attempting to catch the ball have actually taken their lost health " on the 
fly." About the amusement of hunting and fishing, let me say that you have no right] 
to kill any game that you do not expect to make practical use of, and he who shoots a flock 
of singing birds just to see them fall, or hooks up from the stream a fish just for the 
pleasure of seeing it flop on the grass, is a barbarian. But rightly carried on it is a just and 
invigorating recreation. The best men have found health and exuberance in it. Isaac 
Walton reveled in the sport. And I suppose that some of you have started off with pockets 
full of flies, worms and grasshoppers to the river, flung out the line, sat down on a bridge 
with your feet hanging over, and for whole hours earnestly and patiently waited and 
watched, motionless and with your whole soul in* your face for some shy, obstinate and pro- 
voking fish to bite, and then as the cork began to wriggle, you got up, took firm hold of the 
tackle, and jerked it out, to find that you had caught a laniper eel or snapping turtle. One 
of the excellencies of this sport is that for the time it takes your attention away from the 
cares of life. Once I went out with some gentlemen to encamp for summer recreation 
among the Alleghany mountains. While we were there encamped on Saturday morning the 
clergyman from the village at the foot of the mountain came up and said I should have to 
preach for him the next day. So Saturday afternoon I went out to catch trout and to catch 
a sermon at the same time. Well, I succeeded. That is, I caught the sermon, but I did not 
catch the trout, although I came four or five times very near it. In other words, you 
cannot catch trout and do anything else at the same time, and in that very thing consists 
the excellency of the recreation. So of hunting. I have seen men who went out with 
colorless cheek and heavy heart, come home in a perfect glow, bringing a brood of grouse, 
or a wisp of snipe, or a covey of partridges, Dash and Towser, wet and panting with 
tongue out from answering of hunter's halloo, now sprawling themselves on the doorstep. 
But I have no time to particularize. For mental depression I commend exercise out of 
doors, if possible, if not, then in doors. Whether boat or skate or vehicle or saddle or 
hook or gun or gymnasium, let your sports be hearty, free from dissipation, conscientious 
and Christian, for this is a subject we will have to meet in all our churches yet. We keep 
telling our young folks, " You must not do this, and you must not do that, and you must not 
do the other thing." We shall after a while have to tell them something they may do. 
A religion of " Don't " is a very poor religion. The only way we will ever drive bad 
amusements out of this world is by introducing good ones. And you will come back to shop 
and counting room and studio and pulpit better prepared to bargain, to construct, to pray, to 
sing, to preach. Remember that there is no stock that pays larger dividend than a cheerful 
spirit, and that in all the gallery of disagreeable people there is no face more repulsive than 
that of him who always has the blues. Remember that despondency very often degenerates 
into peevishness, and people become waspish, or to use the more familiar word, " touchy." 
My father once got cheated in a bargain, and had thrown on his hands one of the most 
outrageous horses that I ever saw. We called her " Killposy." She was perfectly gentle 
with the exception that she would balk and bite and kick and run away. If her hair had 
not all stood straight up, and her hip bones could have been sunk about half a foot, she 
would have been handsome. Now that horse never appreciated the kind offices of a groom. 
We, the boys in the country, would take a long stick and fasten it to the end of a curry 
comb and then go to work upon her obstinate hide. She never appreciated it. All you 
had to do was just .to open the door and make a motion at her and she would kick. My 
father after a while gave her away. It was the only time he ever cheated anybody. In 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 133 

other words, slie was " touchy," and a symbol of that class of persons, who, having sunk 
down from despondency into peevishness, cannot be approached without calling forth 
demonstrations of irritability and displeasure. Every little while I see some one in the 
community about whom I say, " There goes a ' Killposy.' ' ' In this large class of despondent 
persons I must place all political hypochondriacs whether in my country or in yours. 
They are not peculiar to any party, but are to be found in all parties. 1 mean the men who 
think everything is going to ruin. They always have thought so, think so now, always 
will think so. If my country is going to ruin it goes very slowly. Without treading on any 
man's political affinities I could in a few minutes show the folly of ever having the blues 
about your country or mine. Our future is not dependent upon the success of this or that 
partisan organization, but upon the Almighty Arm of God that will clear the way before us. 
We want no bigotry in Church or State. When the time comes in my country that free 
discussion is prohibited I want to move to Kamtschatka or the Kingdom of Dahomey. 
I am willing to acknowledge a man of any party a patriot provided he loves his country 
and strives for its welfare, be he Republican, Democrat, Freemason, Native American, 
Fenian, or Brooklyn lecturer. We should have a little more suavity and politeness in 
political discussion. How seldom it is you find two people talking politics, but they get 
mad. I do not know why a man cannot be as polite on the subject of politics as any other 
subject. 

A man was driving a cow along the road and the cow turned up the wrong lane, and 
he saw a man coming_down the lane and he thought he would just have him stop the cow. 
So he shouted, " Head that cow." The man answered, " She's got a head." " Well," said 
the other, "turn her." The man replied, "She's right side out now." "Well, speak to 
her." The man answered, " Good-morning, ma' m." Polite, even to a cow. So I like to 
see a man always polite to his cow, to his horse, to his dog, and especially to his fellow- 
man, and more especially if that man happens to know as much as you do. There never 
has been any reason why you or I should have the blues about our beloved lands, and there 
are no reasons now. By the throne of the eternal God I assert it that truth and liberty and 
justice shall yet be triumphant over all their foes. Many years ago I gazed upon a scene, 
which for calamity and grandeur, one seldom sees equaled. I mean the burning of the Smith- 
sonian Institute of the United States at Washington. You have all heard of the architectural 
grandeur of that structure. It was the pride of my country. In it art had gathered rarest 
specimens from all lands and countries. It was one of those buildings which seize you 
with enchantment as you enter and all the rest of your life holds you with the charm. I 
happened to see the first glow of the fires which on that cold day looked out from the 
costly pile. I saw the angry elements rear and rave. The shoxit of affrighted workmen, 
and the assault of fire engines only seemed to madden the red monsters that rose up to 
devour all that came within reach of their chain. Up along the walls and through the 
towers were stretched fiery hands, that snatched down all they could reach and hurled them 
into the abyss of flame beneath. The windows of the tower would light up for a minute with 
a wild glare, and then darken, as though fiends with streaming locks of fire had come to gaze 
out in laughing mockery at all human attempts, and then sank again into their native 
darkness. With crackle and roar and crash the floors tumbled. The roof began here and 
there to blossom in wreaths and vines of flame. Up and down the pillars ran serpents of 
fire. Out from the windows great arms and fingers of flame were extended, as though 
destroyed spirits were begging for deliverance. The tower put on a coronet of flame and 
staggered and fell, the sparks flying, the firemen escaping, the terror accumulating. Books, 



134 



THE EARTH GIRDEED. 



maps, rare correspondence, autographs of kings, costly diagrams burned to cinder, or 
scattered for many a rood upon the wild wind, to be picked up by the excited multitude. Oh ! 
it seemed like some great funeral pile, in which the wealth and glory of the land had 
leaped to burn with its consuming treasures. The heavens were blackened with ■ whirl- 
winds of smoke through which shot the long red shafts of calamity. Destruction waved 
its fiery banner from the remaining towers, and in the thunder of falling beams and in the 
roaring surge of billowing fire, I heard the spirits of ruin and desolation and woe clapping 
their hands and shouting, "Aha, aha !" I turned and looked upon the white dome of the 
Capitol, which rose through the frosty air, as imposing as though all the white marble of 
the earth had come to resurrection, and stood before us, and reminding one of the great 
White Throne of heaven. There it stood unmoved by the terrors which that day had been 
kindled before it. No tremor in its majestic columns. No frown on its magnificent sculp- 
ture. No flush of excitement in its veins of marble. Column and capitol and dome, built 
to endure until the world itself shatters in the convulsions of the last earthquake. Oh, what 

a contrast be- 
tween that 
smoking ruin 
on the one 
hand, and that 
gorgeous dream 
o f architecture 
on the other. 
Well, the day 
speeds on when 
the grandest 
achievement of 
man shall be 
consumed and 
the world shall 
blaze. Down 
will go galler- 
ies of art and 
thrones of roy- 
will scatter even the ashes of consumed 
Not one city unconsumed. Not one scene 
Seas licked up. Continents 




SYDNEY TRAM-CAR ON WHICH WE HAD THE PLEASURE OF RIDING. 



alty, and the hurricanes of God's power 

greatness and glory. Not one tower left. 

of grandeur to relieve the desolation. Forests dismasted, 

sunk. Hemispheres annihilated. Oh, the roar and thundering crash of that last conflagra^ 

tion ! But from that ruin of a blazing earth we shall look up to see the Temple of Liberty 

and Justice rising through the ages white and pure and grand, unscarred and unshaken. 

Founded on the eternal rock and swelling into domes of infinitude and glory in which the 

hallelujahs of heaven have their reverberation. No flame of human hate shall blacken its 

walls. No thunder of infernal wrath shall rock its foundation. By the upheld torches of 

burning worlds we shall read it, on column and architrave and throne of eternal dominion : 

" Heaven and earth shall pass away, but truth and liberty and justice shall never pass 

away." 



nx 



CHAPTER X. 

THE NOBLE MAORIS; OR, MURDER AS A PASTIME. 

'HAT the Indians are to America, the Maoris are to New Zealand. These 
aborigines are dying out very rapidly, but you see them in all the upper 
portions of New Zealand. All this country was once theirs, and they would 
have kept it, but from whaling ships the foreigners alighted to furnish enough 
rum and vices of all sorts to kill the Maoris. They are said to be a superior race of savages, 
but the nobility of them I fail to see. Their faces are plowed up, not with age, but by a 
tattooing which they suppose pictorializes and beautifies. Sharp shells scooped out these 
furrows of the countenance. Their greatest fun was massacre. When some of them 
adopted Christianity, they received the Old Testament but rejected the New Testament. 
They liked the war scenes of the Old, but not the peace of the New. On occasions they 
made cartridges of the New Testament. When they could not eat all their enemies, they 
preserved them in tin cans and sent them as delicate presents to their friends. The ship 
"Boyd," bound for England, put in at one of the New Zealand harbors, and all on board 
were slain and eaten except a woman and three children, who hid away, the only survivors 
to tell the story. Of course, all ships knew that if they were wrecked on these shores they 
would become a part of the diet of the people. Two of their chiefs taken to London in 
1820 aroused much interest, and they were loaded with presents of all sorts ; but before 
starting for home these recipients exchanged the presents for muskets, with which they 
drove back and destroyed the neighboring tribes who could not afford muskets. Some of 
these savages went so far as to lend clubs and powder and knives to their enemies, that 
lively fighting might be kept up. On one occasion they refused to capture the trains 
carrying food and ammunition to the opposing forces, and when the chief of the Maoris 
was asked the cause of this, he replied, " Why, you fool, if we had captured their ammu- 
nition and food how could they have fought !" One of the missionaries says that he held 
a religious service at a place between two fighting tribes, and from both tribes the audience 
was made up on Sunday, but on Monday they resumed their old fight. If they had had 
plainly put to them the first question of the Catechism, " What is the chief end of man ?" 
their reply, if frankly made, would have been, " The chief end of man is to make an end 
of him." De Quincy wrote an essay on " Murder as a Fine Art," but to the Maoris murder 
was pastime. Assassination was for ages their gladdest recreation. Massacre was their 
sport. It was to them what the tennis court and croquet ground and baseball are to many 
moderns. No hunter ever more enjoyed shooting reed birds or fetching down a roebuck ; 
no fisherman better liked throwing a fly and watching a spotted trout rise to snap it, than did 
these Maoris the slaughter of a man. Give beef or mutton to others, but the appetite of 
the Maori wanted something human in the bill of fare. Many of the Maoris may be good, 
and kind, and noble, but their ancestors were without nobility of nature, unless laziness and 
heartlessness and revenge and malevolence be noble. What an appetite they must have 
had for soup of human bones ! for white man on toast ! and for spare rib of missionary ! 
We search New Zealand in vain from top of North Island to foot of South Island to find 
among the Maoris anything muie noble than seen in the American Indian seated by a 

(135) 



136 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

bridlepath of the Rocky Mountains, wrapped in filthy blanket, hair combed once in forty 
years, waiting for a cowboy to toss him a rusty cent. These Maoris were the impersona- 1 
tion of cruelty and diabolism. It was to them rare sport when they could take an enemy 
and scalp the skin from the bottom of the feet — if you can apply to the lower extremities 
the word usually applied to the upper extremities — and make the victim walk on a rough 
place, and the shriek of pain would make these noble savages laugh till you could hear ] 
them half a mile away. Sometimes they would, in order to have fresh meat, cut the flesh 
from their victim just as they needed it by nice tid-bits and day after day. Back of 
Gisborne, New Zealand, to make a fine peroration of their accomplishments, they killed all 
the men, women and children, so that the authors might not be charged with lack of 
thoroughness. 

They tell the most enormous stories of the bravery of their ancestors. These 
ancestors, they say, killed the two great warriors of Waterloo, Wellington and Napoleon, 
and the tribe believe it too. Within a few days one of their chiefs was buried amid wild 
scenes of lamentation, and after the body was put in the ground, the chief's hat and 
blanket and umbrella were thrown in after him, and then many of the tribe leaped upon 
the grave with howls and screams and dancing. Not satisfied with deeds of cruelty while 
living, these noble Maoris in olden time expected their wives to strangle themselves, and 
while twisting the flax for the rope, the sister of the dead chief is reported by a recent 
writer as looking up to the moon and saying : 

" It is well with thee, O moon ! You return from death, 
Spreading your light on the little waves. Men say, 

' Behold the moon re-appears ;' 
But the dead of this world return no more. 
Grief and pain spring up in my heart as from a fountain. 
I hasten to death for relief. 

Oh ! that all might eat those numerous soothsayers, 
Who could not foretell his death. 
Oh ! that I might eat the governor ; 
For his was the war !" 

One of the most terrible things in all the country of the Maoris is their law of Tapu. 
If any one breaks that he must die. When a thing is said to be tapu, no one must use or 
employ it. For instance, a man gave a slave a knife, forthwith that knife became tapu, yet 
some one dared with that knife to cut the bread for a chief's mother, and the man who 
used the knife for that purpose was butchered. That whimsicality of tapu has left its 
victims all up and down New Zealand. The fact is that barbarisms are so repulsive in every 
form that there is nothing admirable about them, and the only thing to do, is by the 
influence of Christian civilization to extirpate them, and they are going, and for the most 
part have already gone. Cannibalism in New Zealand is dead. The funeral pyres in India 
have been extinguished. The Juggernaut has been put aside as a curiosity for travelers to] 
look at. Instead of the cruelties that once cursed these lands I find our glorious Christianity I 
dominant. All over New Zealand, the highest culture, the grandest churches, the best ] 
schools, and a citizenship than which the world holds nothing nobler. 

I hereby report to the American lecturers that New Zealand is a grand place for their! 
useful work. Only two or three English and one American lecturer have ever trod these! 
platforms. But the opportunity here is illimitable. Not in all the round earth are there 
more alert, responsive, or electric audiences. They are quicker than American or European | 
assemblages to take everything said on platform or in pulpit. They call out all there is in i 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 137 

a speaker of instruction or entertainment. And the Church and the world have yet to find 
out that audiences for the most part decide whether sermons or lectures shall be good or 
poor. Stolid or unresponsive audiences make stolid and stupid speakers. Wendell 
Phillips, one of the monarchs of the platform, told me something very remarkable con- 
cerning himself, while we were standing in a Boston book-store, and he was chiding me for 
not appearing at Ann Arbor, Michigan, from which place he had just returned, and where 
I had tried to get a few days before, but was hindered by snow banks, and my offer of two 
hundred and fifty dollars for the use of a locomotive had been declined. Mr. Phillips said 
that the audience in one of the Eastern States nearly killed him. He said, " I stood for 
nearly an hour without seeing or hearing anything by which I could judge of the effect of 
what I had said. If they had only hissed or applauded, I did not care which, I could have 
got on with some comfort." . . . Mr. Phillips surprised me by this statement as to the 
effect wrought upon him by a phlegmatic assemblage. 

The audience decides the fate of sermons or lectures. A half dozen men might, if they 
wished to engage in so mean a business, take a contract to break down any speaker, if they 
would sit right before him, gape, take out their watches, and cough with mouth wide open, 
and then seemingly go sound asleep. An eloquent American preacher, standing before me 
in a former pulpit delivered the first half of his sermon with great power, and his words 
had wings and his countenance was aflame with holy enthusiasm, when suddenly his wings 
of thought and utterance dropped, and he stammered on his way, and got entangled in 
metaphor, and lost his thread of discourse, and failed to prove that which he said at the 
start he would prove, and then sat down. While the congregation were singing the last 
hymn he said, " Who is that distinguished-looking gentleman right in front of the pulpit? 
The sight of his somnolency and lack of interest completely upset me." " Oh ! " I said, " that 
is the Honorable Mr. so and so, one of the ablest men of the nation, and he was deeply 
interested in all you said. He is not asleep, but is suffering from weak eyes, and is com- 
pelled to keep them shut while listening." The uninteresting appearance of the auditor 
had overthrown a " Master of Assemblies." 

I say to the men who preach and lecture, come to New Zealand. But should ministers 
ever lecture ? Ought they not always preach ? My answer is that the intelligent lecture 
hall is half way to the church, and I notice that men who have been hating the church 
and all sacred things, if they come and hear one lecture, are sure to come and hear him 
preach. Beside that there are important things to be said, and things that must be said, 
which are more appropriate to lecture hall than to pulpit. The three mightiest agencies 
for making the world better are the Pulpit, Printing Press and Platform. Side by side may 
they always stand in the battle for righteousness. But for them the Indians' war-whoop 
would yet be sounding in America and on the Atlantic coast, the morning meal of human 
flesh would still be going on in New Zealand, and the Ganges would still be horrible with 
infanticide. Let all nations reconstruct their notions of New Zealand. I write this at 
Dunedin, imposing in its architecture, picturesque in its surroundings, unbounded in its 
hospitality, and another Edinburgh, after which I understand it is named Dun — Edin being 
the Gaelic for the Northern capital of intelligence. 

The Scotch founded it and what the Scotch do they do well. They believe in some- 
thing, and it is almost always something good that they believe in. High-toned morality 
characterizes everything that they do or touch ; solidity, breadth, massiveness and religiosity 
are the types of the men and cities and nations they build. No country is well started that 
has not felt the influence of the Scotch, with their brawny arms and high cheek bones. 



138 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



The seaport of this place is called Chalmers Port, named after, I have no doubt, Thomas 
Chalmers, the greatest of Scotchmen, unless it were John Knox ; and the largest church in 
this place, where I preached last night, is Knox Church, called, I have no doubt, after the 
man who at Holyrood made a queen tremble. Here I am in the mid-winter of this colony, 

for July here corresponds with our Ameri- 
can January ; but there are no such severi- 
ties of frost or snow as we are familiar with 
in our New York latitudes. The grass is 
at this moment a bright emerald, the gar- 
dens are in glorious flower, the miles of 
hedgerows that line the roads and part the 
fields are banks of gold because of their 
blossoming gorse. From the top of the 
North Island of New Zealand to the foot 
of the South Island, the colony is a be- 
witchment of interest. For 120 miles ever 
and anon geysers send up their steam curl- 
ing on the air. The glaciers, the romantic 
lakes, the drives, the wooded summits, the 
mountain peaks, the escarpment of the 
hills, the fertile fields, the falling waters, 
the hot springs and the cold springs, the 
flora with its infinitude of camelias, and its 
small heaven of ferns, the sunrises and sun- 
sets, and above all the people with a cordi- 
ality and heartiness independent of all 
weather and all circumstances, make New 
Zealand 1300 miles of invitation to the in- \ 
habitants of other zones to come here 
whether for health or pleasure, or liveli- 
hood or worship. What uplifted altars of basalt ! What blue domes of sky ! What bright 
lavers of river ! What baptism of gentle shower ! What incense of morning mist ! What 
doxology of sea on both beaches ! What a temple of beauty, and glory, and joy, and 
divine ascription is New Zealand ! 




DR. TAI<MAGE AMONG SAVAGES OF THE SOUTH 
SEAS. 



CHAPTER XL 

WOMAN IN NEW ZEALAND AND THE FALL OF THE TERRACES. 

^ ^XCEIvLENT and superb as are the women of New Zealand, more good women are 
■ ^ needed in this colony. In most places where I have lived or traveled women are 

^ ^ ^ in blessed majority, and it seems that the L,ord likes them better than men, 
because he has made more of them. There is in most places a surplus of good 
womanhood, and they therefore do not get full appreciation. But New Zealand is an 
exception. In this colony there are fifty thousand less women than men. This will by 
circumstances be adjusted. There ought certainly to be as many women as men in every 
land, for every m^an is entitled to a good wife and every woman is entitled to a good hus- 
band. The difficulty is that war and rum kill so many men that the man intended for the 
woman's lifetime partnership is apt to lie in the soldier's grave trench or in the drunkard's 
ditch. In the Paradisiacal and perfect state the womanhood eqitaled the manhood, for 
there was one of each kind. The 'women in New Zealand have already done well, for 
while in the United States and Europe the women are discussing in parlors and on the 
platforms how they shall get their rights at the ballot-box, that castle has already been 
stormed and taken by the women here. After a while the brave sisterhoods in the United 
States and Great Britain will band together, and from the crowded parlors where so many 
languish in inanition and inoccupation, they will make a crusade to these parts of the earth, 
where their presence would be hailed and their opporti:nities augmented. The theory that 
men must go into new countries alone and establish themselves in mines, in mechanism or 
merchandise, and then send for their families to join them, is an overdone theory. The 
wives and daughters and sisters had better come along with their husbands, fathers, and 
brothers. Instead of there being a surplus of men in the colonies there ought to be a sur- 
plus of women, out of which to get the supply of maiden aunts — those guardian angels of 
the community who are at home in the whole circle of kindred, the confidant of the young 
and the comfort of the old, and the benediction of all. 

Not only is there room in New Zealand for more good womanhood, but there is room 
for more artists and naturalists. Here are mountains 9000, 10,000, 11,000, 12,000 feet 
high, waiting for some one to take their photographs ; and while most of the mountains of 
the earth stand stolid and statuesque and without varieties of posture, some of these change 
their shape and altitude under volcanic suggestion, as the man in the photographic gallery, at 
the artist's suggestion, changes from side face to full face, or from frown to smile, and one day 
iti this region a mountain turns clear round, or from standing posture sits down with heavy 
plunge ; or a crevice opens between the cheeks of the hill — a wide-open mouth full of 
laughter or threat. The changes in the mountain ranges are enough to set a geologist wild 
with interest or send him running up and down these altitudes with crowbar to dig, or 
hammer to strike or tape line to measure. On a night in June, 1886, the mountains of 
Tarawera and Rotomahana, New Zealand, had a grand frolic. For many years tourists had 
gone to visit the " Terraces," as they were called — ancient forms of volcanic eruption. They 
were stairs of pictured stones, step above step of pumice and lava, reaching from earth 
toward heaven, but some of the steps of the stairs 50 and 100 feet high ; not so much a 

(139) 



140 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



Jacob's L,adder as an Omnipotent stairway up and down which walked all the splendors 
and majesties, and grandeurs and radiancies of day and night, and sunshine and tempest, 
of summer and winter, of decades and centuries and ages. These steps seemed to be made 
out of pearls, prisms, petrified hyacinth, lily and violet, and all laid out as with a divine 
geometry. Such cui-ves, such bosses of exquisiteness, such ascents and descents bewilder- 
ing with almost super- 
natural glories ! Masonry 
smoothed by invisible 
trowels ; walls regulated 
by invisible plumb-lines ; 
colors put on by invisible 
pencils ; sculpture cut by 
invisible chisels. 

On the night of June 
9, 1886, the moon was 
passing into the second 
quarter when, ten minutes 
after two o'clock, the earth 
shook and the mountains 
erupted. Standing ten, 
twelve, fourteen miles off 
the people felt the shock 
and saw the ascent of the 
ste:am column, and the red- 
hot rocks, and the volcanic 
ash, and the scoria ; and 
the smoke looking like a 
vast pine tree, according 
to the statements of the 
poetic, but like an um- 
brella or mushroom accord^ 
ing to the description of 
the rustic. Those who 
lived near the base of the 
hills did not survive to tell 
the tale of the catastrophe. 
The detonations were 
heard 250 miles away. 
That was a cannonading 
in which the batteries 
were touched off by 
hidden dynamics. Such 
a combination of wrath and splendor were never before seen in New Zealand. It 
seemed as if all the hyenas of rage were snarling at all the flamingoes of beauty. The 
lake hissed as with ten thousand serpents when the hot bombs of the mountain 
dropped into it. The malodors of burning iron oxides and magnesia, and chlorine, 
and alumina, and sulphur filled all the regions approximate with suffocation, 




A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN OF THE EAST. 



142 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

strangulation and asphyxia. Sixty miles felt the upheaval ; and from Auckland, more than 
130 miles away, a ship put out for the rescue of a vessel supposed to be burning at sca- 
the mistaken fire being that of this burning mountain. In the house of Mr. Hazard, a 
devout Christian man, as the ashes and trees and stones began to drop heavily on the roof, 
a Christian daughter, believing that they must die, sat down at a cabinet organ to play a 
piece of sacred music, and the whole of the family joined in the hymn. And all save one 
of the family perished. At the hotel a Mr. Bainbridge, who was on a journey round the 
world, called the inmates of the hotel together for prayer, and he told them they had only j 
a few more minutes to live, and as he was passing out from the hotel the veranda fell upon 
him and crushed him to death. 

We talk about the dumb elements, but it is hard for me to believe that they are dumb ; 
and that the fire does not feel the warmth flowing in its own veins ; and that the sighing 
winds have no sorrow ; and that playing fountains experience no exhilaration ; and that 
the light does not enjoy illumining the world ; and that the sensitive-plant does not feel 
your touch ; and that the rose, with all its incense, does not worship. It seems that in 
these paroxysms of the mountains nature must suffer. 

That night nine miles of the mountain changed. "The Terraces," which had been 
the pride of the Colonies, sank out of existence. No one but the Infinite and the Almighty 
could afford the obliteration of such resources of beauty and glory. The casting down of 
such altars and the annihilation of such temples, would have been an iconoclasm that 
would have affronted the universe but for the fact that the Lord who made Tarawera and 
Rotomahana has a right to do what He will with His own, and The Terraces, already 
beginning to re-form, may be richer colored and loftier and more resplendent than their 
predecessors. The loss to New Zealand of these white and pink terraces is what would be 
the loss of the Giant's Causeway to Ireland, or the loss of the Pyramids to Egypt, or the 
loss of Niagara Falls to America. The exact physical causes of this up-setting and down- 
tearing and mountain-splitting I leave to geologists to guess about. Translating their 
scientific accounts into easier language it seems that the mountains were stiff in their joints 
from long standing and went into play. For a great while they had enjoyed no fireworks, 
and that night they illumined New Zealand with rockets and wheels of fire. The hills 
went into games of leapfrog, and ball playing, and flj'ing kites, and boxing, and general 
romp. They were exhilarated with a mixture of gases, sulphuric, phosphoric and carbonic, 
and forgot all the proprieties that mountains usually observe. But it was not a comedy. 
It was a tragedy of the mountains, and all the King Lears, and the Macbeths, and the 
Hamlets, and the Meg Merrilies of derangement and horror were that night on the stage, 
of which the belching fires were the footlights, and flames hundreds of feet high were the 
gorgeous upholstery. Tornadoes of ashes. Furnaces, seven times heated, in which 
walked the Deity. Grand March of God sounded by the avalanches. The earth bom- 
barding the heavens. Maniac elements tearing the clouds into tatters and grinding rocks 
under their heels. That night of June 9th, that awful night in New Zealand, when the 
native settlements went down under the ashes of bursting Tarawera as completely as 
Pompeii and Herculaneum under the burial of Vesuvius, seemed to play an accompaniment 
to the words of the old Book, as much revered in New Zealand as in America ; an accom- 
paniment in full diapason, an earthquake with its foot on the pedal : " The perpet- 
ual hills did bow," " The mountains skipped like rams," " The hills melted like 
wax," " The foundations of the earth were shaken," " He looketh on the earth and it 
trembleth." 



I 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



143 



That downfall of the New Zealand Terraces was only a conspicuous circumstance in 
the history of the world. Mountains are mortal, and they write their autobiographies on 
leaves of stone. All the mountains of New Zealand were nursed in cradle of earthquake by 
a parentage of rock and glacier, and they will have their descendants. You cannot bury 
mountains unobserved. There must be a black pall of smoke, and Dead March sounded 
by orchestra of elements, and thunders toUi-ng at the passing funeral of hills, and spade of 
fire to dig their grave, and the discharge of all heaven's artillery at their burial, and the 
solemn and overwhelming Litany sounded : " Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." 

You see it will be well for geologists to come to New Zealand. Ornithologists ought 
also to come. L,ast evening, although it is here midwinter — New Zealand's July corre- 




THE PINK TERRACE, NEW ZEALAND. 



spending with America's January, although far from being as cold — I was standing near a 
clump of trees which still kept all their foliage, and there were bird voices absolutely 
bewildering 'for numbers and sweetness. If the notes of the music there rendered by the 
winged choir had been written on each leaf, the rendering could not have been more dulcet 
and resonant. It would take more room and time than I possess to describe the ornitholog- 
ical riches of New Zealand. First of all its extinct Moa, whose skeleton stands in the 
museum at Christchurch — a wingless bird, or only apologies for wings, but 10 feet 7 inches 
high, neck like a giraffe, and foot as wide as a camel's. This Moa, the largest bird whose 
skeleton has ever been reticulated, its eggs the size of a small bandbo.x. What the mastodon 
was among quadrupeds, and the ichthyosaurus was among fishes, the Moa was among birds. 
But among the living birds in New Zealand's a\iary are the whale bird, black on the back 



144 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



I 



and white on the breast, morning rising from the night ; the hnia, a sacred bird of the 
aborigines, but all birds ought to be sacred ; the parson bird, so-called because the white 
feathers round its neck give it the appearance of a "white choker ; " the bell bird, with 
voice like a chime from the tower ; the New Zealand pigeon, three times as large as the 
American pigeon, and more beautiful only because it has more expanse of wing and feathers 
on which to be beautiful ; the kea, that wars on the sheep, fastening itself on the back of 
the live sheep and not relaxing, but pecking its way through the wool and the flesh until 
the sheep is dead and the beak reaches the fat around the kidneys, for which this bird has 
a special appetite, a habit learned probably by pecking at the butchered sheep around the 
door of the shepherd's hut ; the storm petrel, like a flake of the midnight ; the crested 
penguin ; the paradise duck, its name taken from the fact that its richness of color suggests 
the Edenic, and birds with all wealth of feather, and curiosity of beak, and eccentricity of 
habit, and defence of claw, and audacity of flight, and bearing all colors — the white 
running into crimson like snow melting into the fire ; the blue, as if in some higher flight 
it had brushed against the heavens ; or yellow, as if it had nested amongst cowslips and 
buttercups, or spotted and fringed and ribboned and aflame iintil there are no more 
fountains of radiance into which they can possibly dip their wings. Oh! for some scientific 
gunner to do for New Zealand what Audubon did for America. But, what I never knew 
before, the native birds are dying out before the foreign birds that have been introduced, 
and the native flowers are dying out before the foreign flowers. Although now New 
Zealand is so abundant in all styles of quadruped, it had not, when discovered, a single 
quadruped except the rat, and a foreign rat having been introduced the aboriginal rat has 
nearly disappeared. The English grass brought here has killed the native grass. The 
birds of America, Europe and Asia, imported here, have killed the birds of New Zealand. 
All the earth has been ransacked, and all the botanical and ichthyological and ornitholog- 
ical and zoological worlds have been called upon to make up the present and the future of 
New Zealand. 

Yea, come to this " Wonderland " all who want to see enterprise and advancement. 
Daily newspapers with scholarly men in editorial chairs, and reporters capable of pumping 
interviews from the most reticent and cautious, and make a Sphinx speak. Two thousand 
miles of railroad. Over 1600 schools with compulsory education, building up intelligence 
for the present and affording no opportunity for ignorance in the next centur5^ Baths, 
thermal and chemical, miles long and capable of putting an end to rheumatisms and 
sciaticas and invalidisms that have defied the mineral hydropathics of the continents. Lake 
Taupo, so deep that no plummet has ever touched bottom, and occupying the hollow of an 
extinct volcano, as a bright child might fall to sleep in the bed previously occupied by a 
grim giant. Yea, come to New Zealand, the naturalists, the artists, and the students of 
men and things, and come quickly, for nothing remains here as it originally was, except 
the mountains ; and even the mountains, as on the night of June 9, 1886, when the walls 
of " The Terraces " fell down at the blowing of the trumpets of terror, proved themselves 
no longer to be the " everlasting hills." 




CHILDREN OF THE ORIENT. 



CHAPTER XII. 

OCEAN GATE OF AUSTRALIA. 

^"^y ITCHED, shaken, twisted, flung, sickened, bruised, dismayed, alarmed, are some 
**^ I of the words which describe our feelings whilst crossing from New Zealand to 
y*-^^ Australia. We heard that the passage was like crossing the channel of Calais 
t^ from France to England but that instead of the hour and a half it would be four 

days and a half. It was worse than we expected and worse than usual. We had nearly six 
days of it. 

The only alleviation of the voyage was the Captain, who was jolly at the time to be 
jolly, serious at the time to be serious, and deeply religious at all times. Converted in a 
Presbyterian Church in New Zealand, he has become a flaming evangel, preaching on board 
his steamer once or twice every Sabbath. 

Our rough sea experience prepared us for full appreciation of one of the brightest 
panoramas of land and sky that ever unrolled before mortal vision. Captain Neville said 
to us " We will soon be in sight of the Australian coast, and when we approach the harbor 
of Sydney come up on my bridge, and I will point out to you the objects of interest." 
" Thank 5'ou," was our reply to the unusual invitation, for sea captains do not ordinarily 
like to have compan}^ on the steamer's bridge. In a few moments we climbed to the side of 
the Captain. Great walls of rock built by the eternal God reached along the coast, and 
stopped only wide enough apart to allow ships to enter and to keep the boisterous ocean 
out. 

" Yonder," said the Captain, " is the retreat in the rocks which in the twilight deceived 
the Captain of the ' Duncan Dunbar ' to mistake it for the harbor and to aim for it, crashing 
into destruction. All on board perished save one man who was picked up after he had 
floated down on to the shelving." 

Safely we rode in between the two great brown pillars of Hawkesbury sandstone, and 
then began the revelation of a harbor such as nowhere else in the wide world is to be found. 
The whole scene is an Odyssey, a "Divina Comedia," an Old Testament and a New 
Testament of grandeur and loveliness. You cannot for a moment relax your energy of 
watching without missing something which you cannot see again. The white palaces of the 
merchant princes of Sydney shine through the foliage of the trees. Dipping to the bay are 
gardens abloom in winter, and lawns with an emerald like unto the fourth layer of the wall 
of Heaven. Tropical plants and. tropical flowers stand side by side with the growths of 
more rigorous climates. Vineyards and orange groves, pomegranates and gua\-as, and pine- 
apples growing in a revelry of luxuriance. Norfolk pines, palm, IMoreton Bay fig and 
Eucaliptus trees stretch their sceptres over the scene. Complete bewitchment qf landscape. 
" Steady ! " cried the Captain to the man at the wheel, " steady ! " But no observer can 
keep ver}' steady while watching this ever-changing, ever-inspiring, ever-enchanting scene. 
" Yonder is the Monastery ; yonder, just coming in sight, is the Admiral's house. Yonder 
is the University. Yonder are the Houses of Parliament. Yonder are the old prisons. 
There is the Governor's residence." Here, sweeping up close to our steamer, are launches 
with excursionists. Yonder are sailing boats, so small they suggest a fluttering .seagull. 
10 (145) 



146 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



While the area of the harbor is said to be nine square miles, the water line of it, if 
followed lip and down all its inlets, would be twelve hundred miles. The rippling waters 
kiss the beach, and the beach embraces the bay. At the next turn of our steamer's wheel 
more garniture of island and arbor and inlet and promontory. Oh ! how the marine 
loveliness plays " hide and seek " amidst the islands. Five grim batteries pointing their 
Armstrong guns at us, but only in play. " Yonder," says the Captain, " is a French steamer ; 
yonder an American, and yonder an Englishman." Sydney harbor is so broad and honest 
that no pilot was needed to come on board. Room here for all the navies of the earth to 
ride in and secrete themselves so that they could not be found without much search. Room 
for the "Great Easterns " of the past and the " Campanias " of the present to wheel without 

peril. Room to welcome all the centuries 
and generations and ages which are yet to 
drop anchor in its clear depths. He only 
belittles and bedwarfs and bemeans Sydney 
harbor who compares it to the Bay of Na- 
ples or the entrance to Rio Janiero. 

God works by no model, and this har- 
bor was of divine origination. He works 
with rocks and waters and skies as easily 
as architects work with pencil and rule and 
compass ; and He intended this harbor not 
to be a repitition of anything that had ever 
been done, and to make it impossible for 
any human engineering or landscape gar- 
dening or hydraulics to imitate. It is a 
winding splendor, an unfolding glory, a 
transcendant illustration of what omnipo- 
tence can do in the architecture of an ocean 
gate. 

The day we entered it, clouds of all 
hues were looking down into its mirror ; 
beauties of all styles were walking its opa- 
line pavement ; grandeurs of all chariots 
were rolling across its crystalline highway. 
On the captain's bridge we stood until 
near enough to the wharf to see the deputa- 
tion of clergymen and prominent citizens who were waiting to come aboard to greet us, 
and when they thronged the cabin of the steamer, and addressed us in welcoming words, 
we were compelled, by our own feelings, to reply " Brethren and friends ! after sailing 
against headwinds and over very rough seas, it is most delightful to get into this beautiful 
harbor of Sydney, and into the still more beautiful harbor of Christian fellowship." 

But I was up before daybreak next morning looking at the harbor. The window of 
my room in the Australian hotel takes in the enchantment, and I watched the coming of the 
day into that harbor. The whole sky first took on a pallor, not sickly, but healthful, as 
though there were white wings from the other side shining through. Then there came 
coruscations, and deep indigoes, and irradiations, and sadnesses of color, and unrolling scrolls 
prophetic of more light, and sombfes and holy gleams, and rhapsodies of advancing day ; 



1 
1 




;«;?••' 






1 

1 

. 


J 


IR,»., ;--*!fcv- 







AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAI,, AS I SAW HIM. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



147 




and then, banners of victory over the darkness. Then in this wall of Heaven the gates 
began to swing open. It was no sudden swinging back of the panels of fire. There was 
no grinding of the gates on the amethystine hinges ; there was no clang of bolts hurled 
back from the imperial portals, but a slow and gradual and over-powering movement that 
made me feel there was more to come, and I wondered if I could endure the expanding 
vision. As I looked into the gate I saw, what I described to my son afterward as a sceptre 
a sceptre of great length and brilliance. Such a sceptre as no earthly emperor ever had in 
his throne room. The handle of the sceptre had all the colors of the prism. The edges 
of it were translucent, the point of it was tipped with a waving light all the time changing. 
Yet what a sceptre ! What king would dare to handle it? What monarch would dare to 
lift it ? But while I wondered, the question was answered : the king of day, the rising 
sun, took hold of it, and the sceptre which I had seen 
a few seconds before lying on the shelf of Heaven, was 
first hoisted as though to command the hidden glories 
■of the skies to come down, and then it was pointed to 
the harbor as the place of their destination, and on that 
sapphire of the waves, both the sceptre that I had seen, 
and the crown of the king who took it, were put down ; 
and from green island to green island, and from beach 
to beach, and all up and down the promontories, and 
from sky to water, and from water to sky, it was morn- 
ing in Sydney harbor. 

Have you ever realized that there is only one 
Being in the universe who can scoop out and mould 
and buttress and build a harbor. At Napier, New 
Zealand, where we sailed in and stayed only long 
enough for an hour and a half's address, hundreds of 
thousands of dollars were expended in building a break- 
water, and so at Gisborne, and at different points on the 
Australian coast, harbors have been constructed by 
human hands, but the storms looked at these defiant 
ramparts and in a night tumbled the costly works into 
the Pacific. Harbor building is the reserved right of 
the Heavens. Gates of palaces and gates of fortresses may be turned out from earthly 
foundries, or pounded together by hammers of human mechanism, but an ocean gate like 
that near which I am now seated needs omnipotence and omniscience and infinity to plan 
and construct it. 

No one but the Eternal knows where such a gate is needed. He sees the history of a 
continent before it is populated, and he only can decide where its front door ought to be 
hoisted and swung. Beside that the gate must correspond with the size and greatness of 
the main building. The door of the Madeleine Church would be absurd at the front of a 
Quaker Meeting House. Bronze and gold would make an inappropriate entrance to a 
rookery. Such an entrance to Australia as Sydney harbor would be something for all time 
and eternity to jeer at, if the country thus entered were not something immeasurable for 
wealth, resource and grand opportunity. Had I known nothing of the history of Australia 
what I saw between the door-posts of this harbor and the wharf of our di.sembarkation 
^vould have convinced me of the present and coming opulence of this fifth continent of the 



\% 






111"!: ,■:■!,:' ■,lijL|ii,i'-M'TE --' 



%. 



'^^^lihK^ 




Tatooed giri, of oceanica. 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



world. With such an ocean gate, I am not surprised that Australia is fourteen times as 
large as France and thirty-three times as large as England, vScotland and Wales. It has 
been estimated as capable of supporting one hundred millions of people. All wealth of 
mining and agriculture and commerce and art and scenery are here. Caves larger than the 
Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. Ivakes like Como, Lucerne and Geneva. A botany so rich 
in flowers that Captain Cook called one of the entrances " Botany Bay." Whole Pennsyl- 
vanias of coal mines, discovered by a shipwrecked sailor in 1797, but now defying the 
crowbars of the earth to take one-half of their treasures, and having enough material to 
warm a continent and keep aglow the steamship furnaces of an ocean. Enough sheep pasture 

in the vales and on the hills to clothe with 
their wool whole nations. These sheep 
killed and frozen in refrigerators here, are 
transferred in carts which are refrigerators, 
into ships which are refrigerators and car- 
ried across the seas to the refrigerators of 
Europe and Asia, so that while I write this 
letter, almost within sound of the bleating 
flocks of this sheep-raising country, the legs 
of Australian mutton hang in London 
markets, and the inhabitants of India are 
breakfasting on lamb chops brought from 
the banks of Sydney harbor. One sheep 
paddock of nearly two hundred miles square. 
So much of these colonies is in the 
tropics that they will have a capacity, when 
fully developed, to yield enough sugar to 
sweeten the beverages of the earth, and 
raise enough tea to soothe the nerves and 
stimulate the conversation of the social 
groups of all zones, and produce enough 
cotton to clothe hemispheres. Enough iron 
to be brought up from the cellar of these 
colonies to rail-track the planet. Copper 
and lead, silver and gold waiting for resur- 
rection. Sapphires and rubies, topaz and 
chrysoberyls ready to flash and burn on the bosom of the world's beauty. Cope's Creek 
yielded in one year twenty-five thousand diamonds. 

Do you say that vast regions are not arable but a desert ? Yes, but boring underneath 
the sand and rock discovered water which is only waiting to be called up to irrigate the 
surfaces. What irrigation has done for Egypt and China, and is doing for the American 
desert, will be done for the idle acreage of Australia. It has been demonstrated again and 
again that better than the rainfall it is to have waters gathered into reservoirs ; and so 
droughts and freshets are avoided, and when you want water you turn it on, and when you 
want it to stop, you turn it off. If you say there are not enough hills in Australia to pour 
down the water upon the lands I reply by asking where is the power of machinery? Science 
and enterprise will invent a pump that could spout up the subterraneous and hidden rivers, 
lakes and oceans of Australia. Irrigation will yet abolish the American Desert, the Arabian 




BARRON RIVER NA.TIVK. — AUSTRALIA. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



149 



Desert, the great Sahara Desert, and the Australian Desert. All hail to the agriculture, and 
mining, and merchandise, and manufacture, and art, and opulence, and religion of the 
coming generations of Australia. After a while America, the focus of emigration from all 
lands, will be occupied, and then, if not before, Australia will call the millions of the earth 
who want more room and better chance and easier livelihood, to pass through the same 
ocean gate that opened for us a few days ago, and to feel the welcome blooming from the 
same skies and reaching out from the same Hawkesbury sandstone, and breathing in the 
same balsamic atmosphere, and ilashing from the depths of the same matchless harbor. 




SYDNEY HEAD. — ENTRANCE TO SYDNEY HARBOR AS I REMEMBER IT. 



While dictating this letter to a stenographer in Sydney, and looking off upon its harbor, 
I hear the chimes of the bells from the tower of the post-office. It is the only post-office 
that I have ever known to be graced by such a charm of harmonies. But how appropriate ! 
for the post-office of every city rings out more music, or tolls more sadness than any other 
building. There are the piles of letters with joyful tidings and hilarious surpri.ses and 
marriage announcements ; and every post-office ought to have a chime of wedding bells. 
But every post-office has piles of letters with stories of sadness and bereavement, and loss 
and death, and burial, and, therefore, such a building ought to have bells to .sound the 
knell and bells to toll the grief. Ring on ye bells of Sydney post-office and .sound over 
yonder harbor your merriment or sadness. Four times every hour that tower showers its 



I50 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



chimes ; at each quarter hour the air is stirred with its melodies, but at the close of each 
full hour the effect is very peculiar. Tinkle and clash, and jingle and roll, go the sweet 
metallic voices, as much as to say " Be cheery while the moments go by ! Move as briskly 
as you can, and let the passing moments keep step with the sounding joy." But while you 
are listening, suddenly there comes in the mighty stroke of the post-office clock in deepest 
and most reverberating tone, letting you know that one more hour of time is forever past, 
and it sounds solemn and tremendous as though at every stroke it said of the hour just 
departed " Gone ! Gone ! Gone ! " The deep bass of that last sound overpowering the 
merry sopranos that preceded it. So the gladnesses and solemnities commingle. But 
perhaps I may have misinterpreted the Utterances of that heavy and mighty clock in the 
post-office tower. It seemed like the death knell of the hour, and seemed to say. Gone I 
Gone ! but now that I think it over, that bell might have been in a different mood from 
what I thought, for bells have moods, and they weep and they laugh, and they dance, and 
they groan. It may be that the resounding and overpowering stroke in that tower might 
have been one of invitation, and that because this harbor is the ocean gate of an almost 
infinitude of opportunity, and the mines are waiting for more crowbars, and the pasturage 
is waiting for more flocks, and the hillsides are waiting for more cities, and the picturesque 
is waiting for more artists, and the fields are waiting for more ploughs, and the printing 
presses are waiting for more authors, and the flora is waiting for more botanists, and the 
skies are waiting for more astronomers, and the churches are waiting for more worshipers, 
and these lands are waiting for more occupants, and this harbor is waiting for more- 
merchantmen, that the bell of the post-office tower is really sending forth a welcoming word 
to the people of all lands, and the voyagers on all seas, saying, " Come ! Come ! Coine ! " 




m 



CHAPTER XIII. 

GOLD I GOLDl GOLD I 

'OULD you like to go down into one of our gold mines?" inquired of me a 
gentleman of Australia. 

" Y-e-s," was my answer, slow and strewn all along the beach of doubt 
and uncertainty. The fact was I had remembrances of descent into a coal 
mine of England some fifteen 3-'ears ago, and my memory of interrupted respiration, 
of the shock of the sudden plunge, and of the unpleasantness of both descent and ascent, 
hindered me from a prompt and decisive affirmative. But arrangements were made. 
Clergymen and prominent citizens accompanied us to the gold mine. A dingy suit that 
had often been worn in subterranean exploit was offered us, and we enveloped ourselves 
from head to toe in a dress appropriate but unhandsome. We looked like a group of mountain 
bandits, so that when a photograph of us was taken at the mouth of the shaft, I asked 
the artist if he were not afarid we would steal his camera. The rude and rough elevator, 
called lift or cage, run by steam, was ready for us. There were no sides to the cage, but 
there was a central bar, and two of us on each side clinging to it. Cautioned by the 
manager of the mine to hold our shoulders in and hold fast, the machine began to descend. 
It was so dark we could not see the face opposite to us, though only six inches awa}'. Down 
through layers of rock. Down under the foundations of the hills. Down past rocks heavy 
enough to crush a city. Down a hundred feet, two hundred feet, three hundred feet, four 
hundred feet, seven hundred and fifty feet. But we started and stopped so gently that there 
was neither jolt nor scare. After waiting until other machines brought down our remain- 
ing comrades, a candle was put in the hand of each of us. With this light we started, single 
file, through the layers of rock cut through panels of eternal darkness, under arches whose 
rafters were set when the world was made, and walls bearing the marks of chisel and crow- 
bar and powder blast of many workmen, on and on, until we came to the foot of an iron 
ladder and hand over hand and foot over foot we climbed it, all the time cautioned to keep 
a firm hold, and not depend too much on the foot, for a mis-step might otherwise land one 
into an abyss from which he could not be lifted until the earth itself splits open. Then 
another iron ladder, and that ascended, still another ladder. By this time we came to a 
plank walk which we followed until we heard voices and the click of instruments, and the 
dim light in our hands is responded to by the flash of the miners' torches. Up in the gallery 
of rock are workmen with torches hunting for veins of gold, and striking into the hardness 
with all their might demanding the surrender of the riches. Down under those depths I 
asked the manager, " How long do 3^ou sometimes work without any good result ?" 

" Years and years," was the answer. 

" How many hours a day do these men work?" 

" Eight hours." 

" Is it healthy work, I would think the particles of dust and stone would destroy their 
lungs ?" 

" We have old men working here who have been most of their lives in the mines and 
they are still in good health." 

(152) 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



153 



After staying as long as we wished, we descended the ladders, finding it more difficult 
to crawl down than crawl up. But candles above us and candles beneath us show the way. 
We cautiously follow the manager until we reach the elevator, and four of us in each machine 
we mount. We are glad to rise, for no one wants to be buried alive even though the stay 
under ground be tolerable. As we reach the light we step out into it with sympathy for 
those who have to earn their livelihood under the flicker of the torch instead of the steady 
radiance which rules the day. The gold mines have made Australia, and the probability is 
that most of the hidden treasure is yet to be brought to the smelters. In thirty-seven 3-ears 
from Australia and New Zealand mines, have been brought up one billion six hundred and 




i.onnox rAi.i.s, xi-.w snt^TH WAi.ES 



fifty million dollars. The Mount Morgan Mine has declared about fifteen million dollars 
of dividend. The curious fact about this mine is that a poor farmer had been trying to 
make a living by cultivaing the ground, and when the Morgan Brothers offered him S3200 
for it, he o-ladly accepted, but the fanner went insane when, sometime after, he found tliat 
the land that he had sold for $3200 was sold for forty million dollars. There are now 
more than eighty gold fields in Australia and this morning I read of new fields dis- 
covered. Ever and anon the laying bare of these mineral resources will start wild 
excitement, aud as someone has expressed it, " there will be multitudes drunk with 
gold." 



354 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

Other products of Australian mines do not receive just attention. The coal beds of 
:24,ooo square miles, worked at twelve points, and one year turning out 265,000 tons, make but 
little impression. The iron in all parts make it probable that Australia will yet have its Shef- 
iields and Birminghams of manufactory, but it is the gold of Australia that makes the most 
•emphatic impression upon the world. The fact is that gold belongs to the aristocracy of the 
hills and is the king of metals and minerals. The Iron says, " Hear me ! I make the rail 
tracks and compose the wheels and own the largest parts of the world's machinery." But 
the Gold replies, " I form the companies that command the railroads, and the iron of all the 
foundries and of all the mills is my servant." The Coal says, " Hear me ! I heat the blast 
furnaces of the factories that tumble and roar and click with the enterprise of nations, and 
"with my warm pulsation in the heart of steamers I trample oceans, and weave continents 
together." The Gold replies, " I own the factories and the steamships and the continents 
they marry." The Silver says, " Hear me ! I flash in the cutlery at the banquets. I pile 
up on the counters of the world's commerce. I stir Congresses and Parliaments and 
Reichstags into discussion of my value." "But," says the Gold, "my worth is beyond 
•discussion. Banks and exchanges and governments put me first in their estimate. The 
■click of my heel on the floor of the Bourse and on the pavement of Lombard and Wall 
;streets wakens instant attention. I make the crowns of kings and queens, emperors and 
•empresses, czars and czarinas. I am the only metal that will be able to join the precious 
:Stones in realms celestial. According to Apocalyptic anthem ' I pave the streets of 
Heaven. I am the king of metals. Down at my feet all other values, all other bullions, 
all the mines of Australia and America ! " As we stepped out of the shaft of the mine 
I said to one of the gentlemen, " I suppose there is more money spent in working these 
mines than is ever taken out of them?" "Oh, yes!" was the reply. Then I bethought 
myself, it is so in the gold regions of Colorado, it is so in the silver mines of Nevada. 
Where one man makes his fortune a hundred men lose all they have. Finding a chunk of 
gold sends a thousand men into insanity. There is more probability that you will be struck 
with lightning than that you will ever make anything out of a gold mine, and there is more 
probability that you will pick up a diamond off the pavement of your city. In most cases 
the practical use of a gold mine is to give day laborers a chance for wages and to distribute 
the surplus wealth of capitalists among those who make the machinery and build the 
.approximate villages, — the bakers, the plasterers, the carpenters, the masons, the boarding- 
houses and the hotels. The sight of a speck of gold in a ledge of rocks calls up all the 
■evil spirits of gambling. Men rush in and buy the shares, and large dividends of expecta- 
tion and disappointment are for the most part the only dividends declared and delivered. 
If widows and orphans and administrators and trustees of estates knew the average number 
■of strokes necessary to find a piece of gold as big as the head of a small pin, there would 
Tdc fewer bankruptcies and fewer instances of turned brain. In most countries the worst 
mine from which to pick up gold is a gold mine. More of it is turned up by farmer's plow, 
■or struck out by mason's trowel, or bored out by carpenter's bit, or found near the brass head 
■of the merchant's counter, or turned out by accountant's pen, or flashes out with the sparks of 
the blacksmith's anvil, or blazes from the paragraph of a wit's coruscations. There is some- 
thing about the sight of gold metal which fascinates and deranges and dements. Fortunate 
thing it is that so much of the world's exchange is in paper bills, in drafts and in checks. 
Many prosperous people see not a particle of gold from year's end to year's end. Paper money, 
■copper money, silver money work not such moral devastation as gold money. It is well 
that these substitutes keep the world from the dazzling eye of the more precious metal. 




THE CASCADI-:, I,OI)lH)N KIVKK 



156 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



A dementia born of the gold mine is evident to all who have struck the regions auriferous. 
The gambling spirit sweeps like a cyclone over such places. In some places in Australia, 
after the discovery of gold, it seemed almost necessary to declare martial law. People drop 
their occupations and professions and make a mad rush for the enchanted grounds. Who 
is going to work for ordinary wages when gold diggers in Australia receive in wages about 
$1900 a year? Who can be content with investments that yield six or ten per cent when 
one nugget of gold was sold at Sidney for $5780 and a native Australian picks up, on Dr. 
Kerr's Station, a lump of gold worth 1:22,500? 

A man playing euchre with his friend lost all his money, and then put up his shares in 
an Australian mine. The successful player also won them. This new owner of the mine 

went up with a friend to see the 
mine. On the way back both 
were taken ill, and the friend 
died. The successful man at 
euchre got well after careful 
nursing, and he felt so obliga- 
ted to the man who had nursed 
him during the illness, that he 
gave him a check for $75,000, 
that being half the value of the 
shares the convalescent owned 
in the mine, namely $150,000. 
The recklessness of those who 
made their money by big chunks, 
and the glitter of the stuff, and 
the disappointment of those who 
paid fabulous prices for shares 
in mines which would not yield 
the worth of a pin if worked a 
thousand years, put multitudes 
into a mood more adapted to the 
madhouse than to freedom in 
the open air. Geologists came 
to settle things. They were 
used to turning leaves of rock, 
and it was thought they could 
easily determine the home of 
the precious metal. But said 
one of the stockholders yes- 
terday to me : " We would have been better ofF up here if we had never seen a geologist, 
they mislead those who trusted in them." From what this man told me I was persuaded 
that the most ignorant miner's crowbar was more apt to find the gold than the most educated 
geologist's hammer. While the scientist was asking where the gold ought to be found, and 
at the shaft of the mine addressing the stockholders about Silurian bedrock, and " oldest 
drift," and " copper drift," and " recent drift," and " trachytic lava, " and " agglomerites," the 
mining companies were losing their all, and their dupes had taken the money out of the 
safe banks of deposit and put it into holes eight hundred and nine hundred feet deep, for 




TASMAN S ARCH. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 157 

ever to stay there. It did not make much difference to those who lost their investments 
whether the gold drift the geologists were looking for belonged to the Pliocene or the 
Miocene period. One has only to stand where I stood to-day to scatter the notion that gold 
is easily picked up in the gold regions. Into my hand a wedge of rock was placed with a 
light vein running through a part of it. The vein was gold. But the rock must be 
■crushed, the small particles must be separated from the nine hundred and ninety-nine parts 
which are not gold. The gold must be smelted. It must be assayed. It must be transported. 
It must be put through the mint. The machinists, the mills, the miners, the carters, the 
smelters, the assayers, the clerks, the rents, the taxes, all suggest expenditure, and when 
that vast expenditure is subtracted from the few bright grains embodied in this wedge, 
which the manager has placed in my hands, there will not be much left, perhaps there will 
be nothing left. The woe of Australia is the speculative spirit. Australians will find out 
after awhile that the mine of gold in these lands is not a thousand feet down, but no deeper 
than a foot from the surface. It will be found in the potato hill, under the plow's furrow, 
and under the peach tree, and under the orange grove, and in the apple orchard, and in the 
head of wheat, and dripping from the sugar-cane, and under the snow-bank of bursting 
cotton pod. Agriculture will yet turn Australia into as rich a farm field as we have seen 
since the gates of Paradise shut out the original occupants. Never have I seen richer 
ground for agriculture. The greatest need of Australia to-day is more population. I have 
been riding for two days over lands which would have all the fertility of Westchester 
farms of New York, or Ivancaster farms of Pennsylvania, or the Somerset farms of New 
Jersey, and yet the occupants of most of these Australian lands might be accommodated in 
the one rail train in which I have been riding. 

My own absorbing interest in the future welfare of this land is easily understood when 
I tell you that all these colonies have been in my pastorate for many years. Deputations of 
ministers at every place we went and people crowding to the windows at the railway stations 
tell me that my sermons have been read in the cabins and the bushes and the mines as well 
as the villages and the cities. Enough encouragement have I received during this Australian 
journey to last me the rest of my life. A man who sits near me while I write tells me that 
he is an Anglican, or what we call an Episcopalian, and that for many years he has read my 
sermons to crowded congregations who have assembled for worship on the Sabbath and that 
he has ridden two days on horseback and one day by rail train to attend my service to-morrow. 
Night after night I confront audiences made up of people who crowd the churches, and halls, 
and academies of music, and blockade the streets, to which outsiders I speak before and after 
the indoor meeting. Hour by hour things are said in the way of thanks and concerning 
cases of comfort and reformation and destiny which I would not dare to repeat either by 
tongue or pen lest I be misunderstood, but no one can stand in the relation I have stood to 
these colonies for more than twenty years without feeling a profound interest in tlieir 
welfare — domestic, social, moral and spiritual. I have been in two months of hearty salutation, 
and, from what I hear, it will continue until, on the twenty-ninth of the month, I step aboard 
the steamer at Adelaide, my last place of Australian visit, and beg the Southern and Indian 
Oceans to let me pass safely to what are called in the Missionary hymn " Ceylon's isle " and 
"India's coral strand," when I will have accomplished at least one-half of my journey 
around the globe. 



SI 



CHAPTER XIV. 

A BAKED MISSIONARY. 

'E had just got off the locomotive of the rail train where we had been riding for 
many miles in conversation with the engineer and had re-entered the carriage 
of the train, when a clergyman got into the same car with us. He had been a 
missionary among the Fijis, and the following conversation took place between us. 

Question : How long were you in the Fiji Islands ? 

Answer: Fifteen years. 

Question : Did you have any experience with the cannibals ? 

Answer: Yes, I was appointed to fill the place of a minister who had been killed and 
then baked and then eaten. Having knocked him on the head they tied his arms around 
his knees and put him in an oven. When I arrived in the Island I was greeted by a message 
from some of the Fijis saying " Tell him to come up and we will eat him." 

Question : Did you go alone to the Fiji Station ? 

Ansiver : No; I was married just before leaving England, and I took my young wife 
with me. 

Question : How did your wife like the idea of such a honeymoon ? 

Answer : She did not like much to go to the Fijis, but she went. 

Question : Did you have any narrow escapes from the cannibals ? 

Answer : Yes, plans were laid for my taking oflf during the night, as I was to preach in 
one of the settlements during the evening. But I saw ominous signs. There were 
Avhisperings and looks askance, and going to and fro, that made me feel I was in peril. So I 
told the chief that I could not wait until night but must preach immediately in the afternoon. 
I therefore conducted service and before night departed. I found afterward that all 
arrangements had been made for killing me that night, and when I passed by another tribe 
they expressed surprise at seeing me, saying "You were to be killed and eaten to-night." 

Question : Was it an especial fondness for the taste of human flesh that led them to 
devour a human being ? 

Answer : Not that alone, but revenge also. They had that way for expressing their 
contempt and hatred for an enemy. The most triumphant boast a Fiji could make was 
to say to anj^one " I ate your father." 

Question : I suppose missionary life among the Fijis was a sacrifice ? 

Anszver : Yes, among the greatest trials was that we had to be physicians for our own 
families. The Fiji treatment of sickness was cruel and senseless. Wherever there was a 
pain they felt thej^ must stick something sharp into it from the outside. Although we had 
had no medical training we had to attend our families in the most serious crises. My first 
child was lost and she could have been saved by a doctor. 

Question : Did the Fijis know anything about kindness? 

Answer : Oh, yes ! They could not do enough for you in the way of kindness. They 
would entertain 3-011 beautifully often in the early part of the very night when they were 
for some good reason, as they thought, to put you to death. 

Question : Were they affectionate ? 

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THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 159 

Ansiver : Yes, when I left the island they came out at three o'clock in the morning to 
see me off, and they bewailed and lamented and howled at my going until I asked them to 
suppress their crying, as the noise would wake up the passengers on the ship. 

Question : Why did they kill, and bake, and eat your predecessor? 

Answer: Because he went to a tribe without a proper introduction by the chief of 
another tribe. The chief felt that he was ignored and sent word to the tribe to which the 
missionary had gone that he must be killed for this offence. 




CORABBOREE, OR NATIVE DANCE, AUSTRALIA. 

The Australian and Tasmanian aborigines execute a dance called the corabboree, in which they imitate the frog and kangaroo, 
both leaping animals. In this dance the party, composed of men entirely, form themselves in a circle and in a stooping posture, with 
hands upon each other's hips ; they move by a succession of leaps, accompanying their movements with grunts and gruff exclamations. 

Question : Is there any cannibalism practiced now in the Fiji Islands ? 

Answej' : No, all such things have ceased. Every evil custom has been abolished. 
The people are civilized and Christianized. There is no place in the world where our 
religion is more thorougly triumphant. 

When in conversation I looked at this returned missionar)-, I .said within myself, That 
is a hero worthy of coronation. What prowess, what self-sacrifice must have been required 
for such missionary life ! And can any appreciation for such men be too great, any nionu- 
ment for them be too lofty, any epitaph be too eugolistic, or any throne in heaven be too 
resplendent ? 

Now this story of baked missionary might excite astoui-shmcnt in civilized lands, but 
things just as bad as this are transpiring in England and America, in the matter of unjust 
and cruel treatment of good men. " May I speak to you," said an elderly gentleman, as I 



i6o THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

stood in the Australian hotel with Colonel Bell, our American Consul, who has thrilled 
these colonies with one of the most remarkable and eloquent speeches ever delivered on 
either side the equator. I said to the stranger addressing me, " You may speak with me a 
minute, but an especial boat is under sail to take Colonel Bell and myself for further revela- 
tion of the beauties of Sj'dney harbor, and I can speak with you only a minute." But the 
conversation proposed took a good deal more time than a minute, for it was the revelation 
of a tragedy in an American minister's life, as dramatic as anything I have ever heard. For 
good reasons I substitute fictitious proper names for the names he gave me. He said in 
substance : 

" You must have heard of an American clergymen, over thirty years ago, arrested for 
murder, and imprisoned and tried and cleared." I said, "I don't remember such a case." 
Then in substance he went on to say, " I was pastor of a large church which was thronged 
with people, and this excited the jealousy always aroused against one who has an audience 
unusual for size. There were two brothers in the county by the names of John and Henry 
Haggard. John was an elder in my church. Henry had a deadly hatred against John 
because in the distribution of their father's property, John had received what he considered 
a more valuable portion, a village afterward being built on his part of the estate. The 
prosperity of John Haggard and my prosperity as his pastor, set Henry to work to destroy 
me. My wife, a splendid woman, after three years of illness and dementia, committed 
suicide. 

" Three months passed and Henry Haggard, in a railroad train, said to his friends that 
I had murdered my wife. He published a leaflet with the same purpose, and under the 
advice of friends I brought a libel suit against him. Going into the printing office of a 
neighboring town I confronted Henry Haggard and called him by name. He said he .did 
not know me. I said, ' I know you,' and turning to the printer I asked, ' Can you tell me 
who employed you to publish this leaflet ? ' 'I can tell you.' ' Who employed you ? ' I 
asked, and he replied, pointing to Henry Haggard, ' He did ! ' My evidence of his 
authorship was thus complete. Henry Haggard then went home and without any author- 
ization emploj'ed a doctor by the name of Hildebrand, from a distant city, to exhume my 
wife's body and examine it. This phj^sician reported that she had died not by suicide but 
by strangulation effected by other than her own hands. This physician said he had taken 
with him for evidence both her lungs. I was arrested and imprisoned until I could get 
bail. I then had, unknown to outsiders, my wife's body exhumed and examined by three 
of the most eminent physicians of America. They found that the aforesaid physician who 
had made the exhumation, and said that he had taken the two lungs had removed only one 
lung, and that the lung left gave positive evidence that there had been no strangulation. 
The trial came on. The doctor who first exhumed the body of my wife was put on the 
witness stand. He testified that he had both lungs in his possession and that they showed 
positive evidence of strangulation. Then my attorney, who was afterward a Senator of 
the United States, undertook the cross-examination and said, ' Doctor, did j-ou examine both 
lungs of the deceased and find evidence of strangulation?' The witness answered 'Yes.' 
' Did you take both lungs with you ? ' 'I did.' ' You are sure you took away both 
lungs?' 'Yes.' 'You swear to that?' 'I do.' 'Now,' said my attorney, rising to his 
feet, livid with rage and thundering at the witness, ' do you not know that three of the 
most eminent physicians of the land went to that woman's grave and exhumed the body 
and found that you left one lung and that that lung shows positive evidence that strangula- 
tion did not take place and that we have that lung in the court-room and that here it is ? ' 




SINGALnSE BECCAR. — /'Vvi;// <l /'//o/iiL,T(l/i/l. 



(t6i- 



i62 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

The witness was overwhelmed. The court was indignant. The three eminent doctors were 
present to give testimony that the charge against me was outrageous and damnable, and the 
Judge said, ' I dismiss the case. In all the annals of jurisprudence I never knew anything 
so nefarious as the persecution of this minister of the gospel. Adjourn the court ! ' I 
resumed my pulpit, my congregation unanimously standing by me. To meet the expenses 
of the law-suit and the trial, John Haggard paid $21,000 out of his own pocket. I was 
triumphant, and all good people everywhere rejoiced with me. But the strain on my nerves 
had been too great. The eminent Rev. Dr. Brainard invited me to take a church in Phila- 
delphia, thinking that change of scene would recuperate me. I assumed the Philadelphia 
charge, but my health was too much broken to keep it. Then the Rev. Albert Barnes, the 
world-renowned commentator, advised me to take for recuperation a long sea voyage. I 
took it. I am here in Australia living a quiet life, unable to do work of any kind, but I 
have some means left and so I will stay here and spend the rest of my days." 

So ended the strange story ! I stood amazed and aghast, looking at the narrator. My 
sympathies for the man were wrung out. He wanted no help, but just the relief of telling 
the story. A splendid man blasted by scandalization ! A victim on the holocaust of 
revenge ! A deed of barbarism encouraged in a Christian country ! A diabolism worthy 
of perdition ! An exile from home and country to live and die among strangers ! What 
better is that ministerial sacrifice than the one I have just told about baked missionary. 
The Fiji oven was more merciful than the furnace of spite into which this American 
clergyman was thrown and fastened. How many lives have been ruined by devilish perse- 
cution ? Ovens for baking such victims, clerical and lay, are always heated ! The fires 
in them are always stirred ! The fuel for kindling them is always at hand. Baked 
missionaries ! Baked pastors ! Baked officials ! Baked merchants ! Baked mechanics ! 
Baked farmers ! Australia has more men with graphic and startling history than any land 
with the same number of people. Many strong natures despairing of any peace in their 
own land, and tired of the injustices of the world, have retreated to this land and have here 
found that quiet and freedom from pursuit which they never could have found in their own 
land. The fact is that many good men have always been misunderstood and always will be 
misunderstood, and some of them have been wise enough to give up the work of useless 
explanation, and have taken themselves to " the uttermost parts of the earth." I admire 
them for that they had the courage and the perseverance and the intelligence to cross the 
seas, and among strangers begin anew under other auspices. God help the voluntary exiles 
all the world over ! They may be far from the cradles in which they were rocked for their 
early slumbers, and from the graves where their parents repose in the last slumber, but the 
unloosed and winged spirits of their ancestors will hover over them whether on this or 
the other side of the Pacific, whether north or south of the Indian Ocean. Why do not 
some of my readers who are hemmed in and crowded by circumstances and bufietted with 
enemies who are all the time heading you off, pick up your valuables, tell your wife to go 
up and kiss the old folks " Good-bye," and take your ticket for some of these regions where 
you can have five hundred acres at less expense than you can have a city back-yard, and 
turn your children among the lambs, and live in a climate where the winter is so mild it 
kills neither the grass nor the flowers ? 

In all these Australian latitudes I find men who were so strong as to take such a 
decisive step and their heroism has already been rewarded. But many cannot leave their 
native land, and exchange the scene of persecution and strife for antipodean release, as in 
the case of the self-expatriated minister whom I have mentioned. Antagonisms are almost 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



163 



always aroused by jealousies. Some one has more money or more power or more social 
position or more office than we have. We must get even with him somehow. If we 
cannot get the office he occupies we will make him uncomfortable while he occupies it. 
If we cannot get as much money as he gets we will at any rate start the suspicion that he 
obtained it dishonestly. If we cannot climb as high as he, we will anxiously wait till he 
starts down hill and then we will help him in the precipitation. If he be too strong to 
grapple with, we will at any rate have the satisfaction of making mouths at his sister. In 
contrast with the wrongs and injustices inflicted in Christian lands by the world's jealousies 
cannabilism seems less reprehensible. The tortures of barbarism were less severe than 
the tortures of civilization. Rather than endure the scalding waters and red-hot gridirons 
of persecution which I have seen many innocent and lovely men and women in America 
suffer, I would prefer the fate of some of those excellent men who, gone among the Fiji 
Islanders to benefit and save them, have been knocked on the head, and fastened, and 
with their arms bound round their knees, take the fate of the one described at the opening 
of this letter, and become Baked Missionary. 




CROSSING THi; ROCKY MDCNTArNS. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE SHEEP BEFORE HER SHEARER. 

GHE most beautiful, tender and suggestive industry of Australia is sheep raising 
Only twenty-nine sheep were landed from the ship of the first expedition tha 
came up Sydney harbor, and now there are about a hundred million ii 
Australia. The climate, the herbage, the absence of wild beasts, make thi 
country the best sheep home in all the world. In 1890 when there were forty-two millio: 
sheep in America there were one hundred and sixteen million in Australia. In li 
Australia produced three hundred and forty million pounds of wool. What a contribution tli 
sheep make to the warmth and comfort and luxury of the world ! What other creature o 
God gives so much for the little it receives. For the grass it nibbles, most of it wild grass 
paying in mutton and lamb chops, and clothing material, which keeps the factories ahur 
and enable the human race to be defiant of the cold. If sheep ever think at all what a: 
idea they must have of the meanness of the human race to take the covering from th 
back of sheephood and put it upon the back of manhood. And yet we all have something 
that ought to be given to somebody else. The fact is that the most of what we have w 
get from others. From others all good influences under which we started life, other 
construct our houses, others build our rail tracks and control our rail trains, others organiz 
the government under which we live, others execute the laws that give us safety, other 
rock our cradle, others will dig our grave. We sit down at our table for ordinary food, an( 
workers of the mine furnish us our salt, and workers of the pottery furnish us our cups 
and workers in the refinery furnish us our sugar, and workers in the fields of Java o: 
China furnish irs our cofiee and tea, and the poulterer furnishes us the chicken, and th 
butcher furnishes us the beef, and the olive vineyard the oil, and the reaper of the wheg 
field the bread, and the rice swamps of Carolina the pudding, and the orchards the fruit! 
It takes the whole world to furnish us with a breakfast or a supper. Come to think of it 
sheep does no more by yielding its wool than we do. We yield for others our strength, o 
our thought, or our help. We have all been sheared for others. Are we as patient as these 
sheep of Australia under the shearer, or do we kick and bleat, and resist and struggle- 
One of the great sheep-raisers of Australia told me he had 30,000 sheep on 40,000 acres 
while others own 100,000 sheep. His place is for sale, and now is your chance. This mai 
told me that the taking of the tariff off the wool a few days ago by the American Congress 
increased the value of the wool here a cent a pound. We are now in the midst of sheej 
shearing in parts of Australia. But what a different process it is from that which manj 
of us boys found in America. ' In those daj^s first came the washing of the sheep in the 
river, and the struggle as to who ought to go under the water — ourselves or the sheep. Anc 
then thirty or forty sheep all sheared by slow process. Now here it is done b)^ machinery 
and tens of thousands pass under the machine. The poor creature is flung upon its back 
and its head taken between the knees of the operator. The shearing apparatus is hung 
overhead, and by an air pressure through a tube of gutta percha acts upon a comb through 
which a cutter passes back and forth four thousand times a minute, and this instrument; 
.running along the sheep-skin removes the wool with great speed. At first the machine 

(164) 




(i65) 



1 66 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

lacerated the sheep, but now it works with a precision and efficiency and harmlessness 
wonderful. The poor animal lies quietly under the process, not a struggle, or even a sound 
of hard breathing. The sheep before her shearers is dumb. The sharp but safe instrument 
finds its way through the rich fleece which rolls back and oflf and down. Fold after fold 
until the spoils of the flock are piled up into great mounds for cartage and transportation, 
and the animal robbed of its wardrobe goes forth to grow upon its back another harvest for 
its owner. There is to me a pathos in such scenes, and I wonder not that some shepherds 
are the tenderest and best of men. We have celebrated the victories of the sword. It is 
high time some one celebrated the victories of the shears. They put their captured wealth 
at the feet of nations. The sound of their grinding blades is heard in the grand march 
of the world's progress. May the shears of Australia have more and more conquests ! And 
God speed them as they go forth on their mission to clothe and adorn and beautify the 
world ! 

The Australian pastoralists' or sheep-raisers' life is not all poetic. This man of whom 
I speak told me that a few daj^s ago he was passing through a room of his house and his foot 
got tangled in what he supposed to be a garment of his child. After awhile he got his foot 
out and what he supposed to be his child's garment he found was a death adder. He then 
stamped on it and the adder stuck its fangs into his shoe, but it did not reach the flesh or he 
would have died in a few minutes. The fact is there are more snakes in Australia than seem 
to be necessary. The curator of a museum reports that just outside one of the Australian 
cities he found in the woods nineteen different species of snakes — a fact that might be very 
interesting for the naturalist but not pleasant to the tourist. South Australia has fifteen 
species of snakes, Victoria has twelve. New South Wales thirty-one, Queensland forty-one, 
and any one who likes snakes, or desires to study their habits, will find entertainment here. 
But I know men who, in America, after too prolonged and intense conviviality, have seen forty 
snakes without crossing the Pacific seas to find them. The adder which the sheep-raiser ran 
his foot against has led me into this paragraph about snakedom. Now while I write, the 
newspapers are full of sheep-shearing strikes. The shearers have stopped work all up and 
down Australia because of the controversy between the pastoralists and the shearers. 
Combined employers versus combined laborers ! As usual the strikers are getting the worst 
of it, because the pastoralists have means and can fall back upon old resources while the 
shearers have no aforetime accumulations. Why this fight not only in Australia but all 
around the world ? Because capital and labor do not understand the principle recognized by 
a manufacturer whom I met in Canada seven or eight years ago when there were many 
strikes throughout Canada and the United States. 

I knew he had thousands of men in his manufacturing establishments and I said to him 
" Have you had an}- strikes in your factories ? " He said " I never had any strikes, nor will 
I have any," I asked "How do you avoid them?" He said "When I find my income 
decreasing and there is no such demand for my goods as previously, and I am losing money, 
I call my men together. I have a room in the factory for that purpose. I say to them, 
' Men, I have called you together for consultation. You know I have my money in these 
factories. I don't of course do business for fun. I ought to have a certain income from 
these factories. Now I have so much money invested. I pay out for machinery so much, I 
pay for taxes so much, I pay for wages so much. You see here the aggregate. Now I am 
receiving so much. You see there is a deficit. I am losing money or getting so little it 
doesn't seem worth rny going on. What shall I do? Shall I run these factories on half 
time, or shall I stop altogether, or shall I go on losing money. You are common sense men 




(i67) 



i68 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

and I ask for your advice.' Then I wait for a few moments while there is a dead halt. Then 
there is a whispering among the men. After awhile one of them rises and says, ' Boys, you 
see how the matter stands. It would be a bad thing to have the business stopped or even 
run on half time. I move that we throw off ten per cent from our wages. What do you 
think ? ' ' Aye ! Aye ! ' shout all the voices, and they wind up by saying, ' three cheers for 
the boss i ' Time passes on, and there is an increased demand for my goods and I am making 
money rapidly. I call my employes together in the aforesaid room and I say to them, ' Men 
I have good news for you. Business has revived, and I am making money. As you were 
kind enough to throw off ten per cent from your wages when things were down I have 
called you together to say that I do not need that reduction any longer. I will give you the 
old time pay. Do you think you can stand it ? ' and they say ' Yes ! yes ! three cheers and 
a tiger for the boss. ' " 

The Canadian manufacturer is not a Christian man, and is so far from that, that I 
understand he uses language objuratory, but he consults his men in that way from purely 
worldly policy. That theory carried out would put an end to all strikes. The trouble is 
that employers are reticent and mysterious, and their laborers think the capitalists are making 
fabulous sums of money when they are making little or nothing. Let all employers take 
their employes into their confidence and the world will soon attend the funeral of the last 
strike. 

There is something so human about the sheep I cannot help being interested in them. 
It is soothing and helpful to walk among these flocks. Though the pastoralists pulled back 
the wool of the sheep and showed me a fleece at least twelve inches long, the advantage I 
gained was not so many pennies a pound, but in sentiment and moralization and suggestive- 
ness. Then the pharmacy of the sheepfold is very much like the pharmacy of the human 
family. The diseases of the sheep are about the same as those that affect our race, and they 
have asthma, and pleurisy, and erysipelas, and sore throat, and rheumatism, and peritonitis^ 
and bronchitis, and paralysis, and apoplexy, and nervous prostration. Sheepology is a very 
interesting study. I am not surprised that in ancient sacrifices it was used as typical, or that 
musical instruments were made out of rams' horns, or that the lamb has always been a 
symbol of gentleness, or that among the pictures of the domain celestial there is a " Lamb 
in the midst of the Throne." Although the old time shepherd is not needed here, as a 
wire fence sweeps round for miles, enclosing the sheep in what is called a paddock, yet these 
sheep-raisers necessarily pass most of their days under the open skies and face to face with 
the natural world. About the men who own these flocks of sheep I have to say that for 
the most part they are a stalwart race. Indeed that is for the most part characteristic of the 
Australians descended from those who came out here in the early days. Not only are the 
present pastoralists and farmers stout and strong by the healthy life they are compelled to 
live in the open air, but they have inherited the brawn and muscle of those who dared the 
seas for six or nine months in order to reach these colonies from England, Scotland and 
other European lands. The grandfathers and grandmothers of these occupants of the soil 
were heroes and heroines of endurance, and the descendants of such men and women partake 
of the strength of their ancestry. After a country has long been settled houses become too 
warm, and luxuries become too abundant, and dissipations become too rampant, and the 
race is apt to be enervated. But the present men and women of Australia have the advan- 
tage of the compelled struggle of the past, and are not 5'et far enough down in the ancestral 
line to have been submerged with the weaknesses of refined civilization. It is an advantage 
to every family at some time in its history to have had a long chapter of outdoor life, such 



lyo 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



as that which the Australian pastoralists and farmers have been compelled to endure. Oaks 
are not born in hot houses. David's life as a shepherd helped to fit him for the life of the 
palace. Our world itself was rocked into its present beauty by a cradle of earthquake. 
Continued health I wish to these men of outdoor life in Australia. May their flocks 
increase, and the droughts which sometimes slay millions of sheep in a season be arrested 
in their consuming power, and every lonely watcher of the Australian flocks have the 
companionship of Him who inspired the watcher of sheep to write, thousands of years ago, 
" The Lord is my Shepherd," and realize in each hardship of pastoral life the protection of 
Him whom the dramatist describes as " tempering the wind to the shorn lamb," and 
possess the patience under all the trials of colonial life of Him of whom it was said, " As a 
sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth ! " 




CHAPTER XVI. 

CHAINS AND EXILE. 

>^-^^UTTlNG his. foot amid acacias, and honeysuckle, and lilies, and waratahs, and 
*^ I ferns, and amaryillis, and orchids, as he landed, Captain Cook called this place 
W<^^ Botany Bay because it would be a good region for botanists to study the flora. 
( ^ ' What a shame that it should, in the minds of nations, be associated with crime ! 
To be sentenced to Botany Bay from England was considered like being sentenced to Dry 
Tortugas from the United States. It meant exiled villainy. The fact is, that though this 
place had the reputation of a penal colony, the convicts of England were not sent here at 
all, but to places approximate. But while the world stands. Botany Bay will mean the ter- 
minus of criminal transportation. No one can visit Australia without thinking of the times 
when the chains clanked as prisoners disembarked for lifetime banishment. Misery and 
mercy fought for supremacy in this colony from 1788, when Australia became the place of 
punishment for unfortunate Englishmen, until 1840, when such transportation was pro- 
hibited. But after fifty-two years mercy triumphed, and happy homes and literary- institu- 
tions now stand on the places where for half a century tragedies of suffering and outrage 
were enacted. For the most trivial offences, for misappropriation of a chicken, for breaking 
of a window glass, for abstraction of a loaf of bread by a hungr\- man, for a defamatory 
word spoken, for the slightest stumble in morals, men were sent from England to Australia, 
never to return. If a man had enemies, they would conspire and for little dereliction, or no 
dereliction at all, get him shipped for these "ends of the earth." The convict ships were 
floating prisons, many of them commanded by fiends, and the asphyxiation from lack of 
fresh air, and the whip or shackle or bludgeon blow given for the slightest protest, and the 
sicknesses that ravaged the rough bunks, made the ocean voyage an agony that shocked the 
heavens. The albatrosses and seagulls heard such groans as must have made them halt on 
their wings. Sixteen inches of room for a man. One himdred and seventy-eight men in a 
space of fifty feet ! Landed in Australia in pens, hunger and effluvia, and cursing and 
stinging cold, or sweltering heat and despair their portion. Many of them drowning them- 
selves because life was unbearable. Many of them turned into maniacs through the maltreat- 
ment. Irons eating to the bone, or the men working up to their knees standing in the mire. 
Charles Anderson chained to a rock for two years only a specimen of the cruelties. Men 
committing murder that they might be hung and so escape the wretchedness of e.xile. Rev. 
Dr. Ullathorne put upon the witness stand before a committee appointed to examine into 
the Australian outrages, testified in the following words : "As I mentioned the names of 
those men who were to die, they, one after another, as their names were pronoimced, dropped 
on their knees and thanked God that they were to be delivered from that horrible place, 
whilst the others remained .standing mute and weeping. It was the most horrible .scene I 
have ever witnessed." 

The fact is that few men can be trusted with unlimited and unwatched power. 
Australia was then five times further off from England than it is now, and captains of 
convict ships, and constables, and jailers, and turnkeys, abusing their power, were .so far off 

(170 



172 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

from reprehension, and their tj'rannies were so slowly reported — if reported at all — that it 
seemed safe to maul and beat and starve the helpless exiles. 

The government at home would never have allowed such atrocities if they had realized 
that such diabolism was being practiced. As soon as, through investigation, the abomina- 
tions were proven, the British lion put his foot upon them, and Australia was forever freed 
from this disembarkation of unfortunates. At one point during the course of years 
70,000 convicts were landed. One hundred and twenty thousand convicts left ship for these 
shores. What has been the result? From such a blasted parentage, you would have sup- 
posed a most degraded state of society in Australia. But here comes an offset to many of 
our elaborate theories about heredity. Indeed, we have all seen in our own countries so 
many of the demonstrated tendencies of a corrupt pedigree, that we have probably said things 




OLD PENAI, COLONY PRISON OF AUSTRALIA, STILL STANDING. USED FIFTY YEARS AGO. 

too discouraging for those who wei^e born wrong. But here opens a wide door of mighty 
hope to all those come of bad ancestors. The simple fact is that the majority of the crimi- 
nals in Australia were not the children of convicts. 

An authorized statement before me shows that in 1886 there were 32,011 persons 
arraigned for crime, and that about only one-third of them were born in Australia ; the 
other two-thirds having been born in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. In that 
colony of Australia to which the largest number of convicts were banished, the per- 
centage of crime is now less than in any of the other colonies. How shall we account 
for this ? 

We need not surrender our theories about the depraved tendency of bad parentage. 
But it seems as if Providence intended in Australia to demonstrate to all people of all climes, 
that however unfortunate the cradle in which one is rocked he can mount into respectability 
and honor. The vast majority of the children of the 120,000 of those condemned to 



174 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

Australia must have turned out honest and virtuous. Some of the children and grand- 
children of those expatriated ones are now in the most important and honorable positions 
of Australian life. They are physicians having on them all the responsibilities of the 
sick-room. They are attorneys pleading causes involving immense value of property and 
life itself. They are executors of estates. They are members of boards of trade and 
manage commerce. They are fathers and mothers of the best households. They are 
officers of religion, and carry the sacramental ct;p through the aisles of the holy communion. 
The mother of one who is now an arch-deacon, and who has been speaker of the House 
of Assembly, was exiled from England to Australia for stealing a horse, in order that she 
might ride away to see her lover. The mother of one of the chief justices of these 
colonies was deported for her turpitude. By righteous Act of Parliament many of the 
public records of transportation for offences have been destroyed. But better than that, 
many men and women by their exemplary career have abolished the stigma of their sad 
heredity. What an encouragement and a cheer for the millions of people all round the 
earth who had vicious or dissolute ancestors, to start anew and open another chapter of 
family record, to beat back the waves of depressing reminiscence, and to be as honored for 
their exaltation of character as their predecessors were dishonored for their malevolence 
or fraud or dissipation. We need to attach enough importance to family blood to impress 
parents with the overmastering thought of their responsibility in all matters of conscience 
and behavior, but we must avoid making so much of heredity as to discourage those 
who would like to escape from under the curse of ancestral obliquity. Some one might 
say that these excellent descendants of profligate forefathers may have been helped to go 
right by the punishment the offenders received. Well, that might have worked salutary 
results in many cases but not in all. 

Another large percentage of good descendants may be accounted for by the fact that 
many of the convicts were really innocent and why should not their offspring be innocent ? 
But after all the reasons given for the fact that the regions once occupied by convicts are 
now as moral, if not more moral, than those settled by avowedly good people, are insufficient 
reasons, and I account for it by the fact that the world needed an illustration on a con- 
spicuous and mighty scale that a family wrecked upon the breakers of crime may be got 
safely off and sail away on a prosperous voyage carrying whole generations. And that 
is right. It would be sad, indeed, if because a great-grandfather had committed assault and 
battery, or put the saddle on the wrong horse before taking a midnight ride, or unduly 
practiced someone else's chirography at the foot of a promissory note, or meddled with 
poultry in a roost not belonging to him, that therefore all the children and grandchildren 
and great-grandchildren should have to suffer from the malignment. According to Sacred 
History there is one unhappy incident in the family line of all of us that should make us 
lenient, and that is the story of the two fruit thieves in the Garden on the Euphrates. 
I simply state thei mpression I have formed that whatever may have occurred in the past, 
the world has no finer citizenship than that now to be found in the Australian colonies. 
As I am not a detective, I have not sought out the undesirable things which might be 
found everywhere, but I avow that the churches, and merciful institutions, the art galleries, 
the schools, the colleges, the Christian homes, the throngs of good men and good women 
here to be found, are something for all the earth and all the heavens to rejoice over. But is 
it not high time that this place called Botany Bay be freed from the derision so long attached 
to it, and be used as Captain Cook, the discoverer, on his arrival here intended it, to sug- 
.gest flowers, for the manner in which many parts of Australia are crimsoned and purpled 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



175 



and whitened and flecked and fringed and starred and emparadised with flora is enough to 
enchant all botanists. I have in these colonies ridden through hundreds of miles of wattle, 
a glorious flower with a poor name. The wattles grow on high bushes and have the yellow 
of fallen sunsets. From the car window, hour after hour, you look out until your vision is 
dazed and bewildered with the unending opulence. Unfenced gardens of vast acreage laid 
out and planted by the hand of Eternal Beauty. Valleys of it, hills of it, lengths and 
breadths of it ! We rode through one lane of wattles five hundred miles long. But there 
are in Australia over 9000 species of flowers already discovered and by the botanists 
christened with names under the baptism of dew. To the aboriginal plants have been 
added an immigration of Polynesian and Indian families of flowers. Plants brought from 




SVDNKY CJARDENS, AUSTRALIA, 

As I walked through day after day. 

other lands change their habits to suit the seasons here and their environment. Such 
flowers may have been Europeans, or Asiatics, or Americans, but as soon as they make 
their home here they become Australians. Blooming in other lands only once a year, in 
this winterless clime they bloom again and again and are perennial. Here is osage-oraitge 
from America, cabbage trees from New Zealand, fig trees from Ceylon, erythrines from the 
West Indies, the maiden hair from Japan and cacti from everywhere. Oh, what a land of 
pictorialized leaves ! What cups of amber and silver and gold and amethyst set on an 
•emerald table of the fields for the bee and the butterfly to drink out of to the health of the 



176 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

morning ! What pillars of divinely shaped stamen ! What miracles of calyx ! What 
poems in letters of camellia ! What banners of lichen and moss unfurled on the rocks ! 
What trembling harp of ferns pla}'ed on by the west wind ! What honeysuckle bleeding I 
with deep color all up and down the hills ! What inverted firmaments of gentian ! What j 
blue-bells tolling their sweetness on the air! What morning-glories worshiping the rising] 
sun ! As mythology tells us that wherever the tears of a maiden fell there afterward J 
sprung up sweet and beautiful flowers, who knows but that wherever the tears of thel 
innocent and wrong-sufferers of penal convict days soaked the ground, there may now come 
up silver-tipped lilies, and that where the drops of blood fell from the shoulders of exiles ' 
unrighteously whipped, there now come up red roses full blown? As Captain Cook sug- 
gested by the name given to this bay the opportunity of great things in the science of 
botany, I wish to suggest that botany may be an everlasting study in the world to come. 
Other sciences will for the most part be extinct. Astronomy may be of little use then, for 
the worlds will have dropped like blasted figs. Geolog>' may be of little use, for the rocks 
will have crumbled, granite and basalt as easily as sandstone. Chemistry may be of little 
use, for our world itself gone, we shall have but little interest in what were its component 
parts. Who will want to spend his time in discussing a defunct planet ? Who will want 
to invest much in a bankrupt world? But botany will cross into the supernal paradise. 
Trees certainly and flowers I think. The river of life will make the place fertile, and there 
will be plenty of sunshine in that nightless realm, and water and sunshine mean flowers. 
In that land the trees bear twelve manner of fruit, and there must be blossoms to herald its 
coming. So that earthly botany here will be only the preface to celestial botany. This 
much I know that the Rose of Sharon will bloom on the eternal hills and the Lily of the 
Valley will make redolent the Imperial Gardens. This stroll to-day on the beach of 
Botany Bay has led me to think of the enthronement and coronation of that beautiful 
science which on earth and in heaven will be a subject of absorbing and rapturous con- 
sideration : the science of botany which we study here by pulling sepal from sepal and 
petal from petal, and with our knife cutting the delicate fibres, will in that land be studied 
while we are twisting the garlands for those who are " more than conquerors." 



CHAPTER XVII. 



ZOOLOGICAL WONDERS. 

""w E who has not seen this nietropoHs of Victoria, this city of gardens and innseums, 

Ir^V colleges and churches, university and observatory, huge banks and brilliant 
M. [ hotels, palaces of merchandise, vast auditoriums and arboreal streets, has missed 
"^ a vision of brightness. It stands on the banks of the Ri\er Yarra, which is to 

it what the Delaware is to Philadelphia, the Ohio is to Cincinnati or the Hudson is to 
New York. Melbourne is surrounded by country seats and health resorts, St. Kilda and 
Brighton and Sandringham and Williamstown. The shepherd who, in 1848, discovered the 




EV/INKV HAKlliiIi, AI STRAI.IA. 



gold near b}', hid his secret for two years while deciding how he could make tlie most out 
of it. But falling sick and expecting to die he told the .secret of the finding, and in 1S51 
all the world knew of it, and the finding of one nugget of gold callctl the " Welcome 
Stranger;" that one chunk worth $50,000, attracted the attention of all nations. We mtist 
be careful and not make comparison between .\nstralian cities, csiK-cially l)etwecn Melljunrne 
12 (177) 



178 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



and Sydney. Indeed the only thing I find to dislike in these cities is their wholesale 
depreciation of each other. Ask a citizen of Sydney what he thinks of Melbourne and he 
will tell you " It is a mushroom growth, situated in a flat country and had a sudden prosperit}- 
that depended upon gold fields which have run out." 

Ask a citizen of Melbourne what lie thinks of Sydney, and he will say, " It was so long 
a penal colony that it has never gotten over it. " Melbourne and Sydney love each other about 

as much as Minneapolis 
loves St. Paul, and Seattle 
loves Tacoma, and New 
York loves Chicago. Al- 
most every city of America 
or England has a rival city 
up or down the river, whose 
existence is an exaspera- 
tion. For the sin of try- 
ing to set themselves up 
higher than others, angels 
were flung out of heaven 
as they deserved to be. For- 
ever silenced be all the 
mean rivalries among cities. 
They do no good, but in- 
jure and belittle. Individ- 
uals, churches, cities, na- 
tions, never advanced 
themselves by abuse of 
others. Subtraction from 
one is not addition to 
another. During my stay 
in Australia, in conversa- 
tion and on platform, and 
in letter, I have carefully 
avoided invidious compari- 
sons. 

It is characteristic of 
the large cities of Australia 
that thejr have great pub- 
lic gardens, statuetted and 
fountained and arbored 
where the populations 
saunter and play. Benedictions eternal upon all those who planned for this garlanding of 
the cities ! Melbourne and Sydney, and Adelaide too, each one for itself, each a chorus of 
colors and aromatics. Alongside of it you will find a zoological collection. 

This land is the native home of the kangaroo. When good kangaroos die thej' only 
go to another part of Australia. Strange^ nervous nondescripts are the kangaroos. They 
almost make us believe in evolution, for the}' seem to be incomplete, and on the way to 
something else. They seem as if nature had become frightened when they were only partly 




KANGAROO. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 179 

done, and left them to scramble for themselves. But evolution will have to slow up on the 
hind quarters, and quicken its work on the fore quarters to make this animal a success, 
either human or quadrupedal. It will require two or three Darwins to fix him up into 
anything admirable. . If it took a million years to develop a tadpole into a man, it will take 
at least half that time to develop the kangaroo into a shape at all plausible. The kangaroos 
have to fall down in order to walk. The last half of them seems to have been first made, 
and the first half only just begun; superfluity of hind feet and paucity of fore feet. 
Kangaroos have the appearance of being on the edge of a fit. When they walk they jump. 
When they lie down they are standing up. The kangaroo is the impersonation of 
ungainliness. It is the consummation of awkwardness. It is the anticlimax of nature. It 
is the burlesque of the animal kingdom. It seems to be in a state of wonderment as to who 
you are, and with the fore feet beckon you to come, or bid you depart, and you cannot tell 
which. At one time they were the pests of the colonies. On one,..^^^^;^-^ ^ 
station $4000 were paid for their extirpation. But they are nnw .:=t^= ■^■-, ^ 
so nearly driven out that they are kept in zoological museums ^^^^S&l- "^'i 
as curiosities. 

You ought to hear the parrots of Australia talk, for 
there are sixty species of them ; and you ought to see the 
glance of the falcons, for there are twenty-six kinds of 
them ; and to stc the " lyre-birds " with plumes in 
shape of a thrummed musical instrument ; and the 
"bower-birds," so called because they build 
arbors and adorn them with shells for them- 
selves and their mates to live amidst ; and 
owls that look the solemnest when they 
are meditating the crudest things, and 
when they are about to prey upon the 
chicken, seem by their looks to say, 
" Let us prey ! " 

But the strangest creature we saw 
in the zoological gardens of Australia 
was what is commonly called here " the 
laughing jackass." It is a bird endowed 
with such a voice as was never poured LAucmNG jackass. 

forth by any other creature of the forest. It has a wise look and a crown of feathers 
on its head as though it had been coronetted for its vocal qualities. Its beak looks like 
two tablespoons, the top spoon inverted. Suddenly it opened its beak and began with 
sounds which were a combination of hoot and yell and bray and cackle, startling for 
compass and wierdness, and volume that would throw any woods into a pandemonium. 
The bray of an American donkey is harmony itself compared with the vociferation of this 
Australian bird. We had seen and heard laughing jackasses before in America and England, 
that is those who laughed at nothing and laughed very loudly, and laughed at the wrong 
time, and laughed at the misfortunes of others ; but the laughing jackasses of Australia 
surpass them all. They are not to blame, for they do the best they can, and are to be 
encouraged from that fact that if they please no one else they please themselves, and that is 
commendable ; for there are many people in the world who neither please others nor please 
themselves. 




i8o THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

While writing of the fauna of this country, I must mention that the rabbits are so 
hated in Australia that they are not kept as curiosities. They have nearly eaten up some 
of the colonies. Large re\Yards have been offered for the killing of them. Two Scotchmen, 
3'ears ago, coming to Australia brought their pet rabbits with them so as to have something 
to remind them of home ; and that Adam and Eve of haredom have raised a family that 
have become one of the greatest scourges of the colonies, not the first nor the last time that 
people's pets have become a nuisance to the neighborhood, although never perhaps a 
nuisance on so illimitable scale. I could not at first understand why Australians had such 
a hatred for rabbits ; for I remembered well that in my boyhood if the track of a rabbit 
were seen some morning on the new fallen snow it set us all wild with glee, and the old gun 
that had not been shot oiF for a long while and was never shot off without danger of its 
bursting, was taken down from its place among the rafters, and the rusty gun-lock was 
picked, and all hands with halloo and swinging caps were on the track of that poor rabbit, 
and if after a half day's chase we brought in the prey, it was hung up with pride, and all 
the neighbors came in to feel the fur, and see where the shot entered the neck ; and that 
one of the boys who had successfully pulled the trigger was honored as a mighty Nimrod 
far and near. But a rabbit in Australia is a synonym for disgust. 

In my journey through New Zealand and Australia, the fauna and the flora and the 
botanical and zoological gardens have been to me a fascination and a charm. What an 
education for a city are such places ! Would that all our American and English towns and 
cities had such adjuncts. It would be a good thing if some of the wealthy men, who leave 
larger bequests to their children than is good for them, demonstrated in their last will and 
testament some public spirit. Not, however, of the absurd kind shown by the man who 
bequeathed that, after death, he be skinned, and his skin given to Agassiz and Oliver Wendell 
Holmes to be made up into two drumheads, on one of which should be written " Pope's 
Universal Prayer," and on the other the Declaration of American Independence, the latter 
drumhead to be beaten the seventeenth day of June at the foot of Bunker Hill. We do not 
like that testator's mode of showing his public spirit. But many of our wealthy men could 
leave enough money to their children to spoil them and yet have enough to open botanical 
and zoological gardens that would bless whole towns and cities for all time to come. 

I will be asked when I get home if in any part of Australia I saw anything of the 
Bushrangers, the desperadoes who aforetime swooped down with pistol and dirk upon the 
settlements of the helpless ones in the Bush. No ! We might express surprise that the 
bushrangers were at work in Australia as late as ten or fifteen years ago, but Australians 
might express surprise that within a few years we have had in America, the Dal ton and 
James Brothers, and banks blown up by dynamite, and masked horsemen, and rail train 
robbers. Every nation at some time has had to contend with this evil : Ruffianism in stir- 
rups ; romance of villainy ; glorified assassination ; murder on the wing ; infamy stuffed 
with braggadocia ; pride of dirk ; highwaymen in triumph ; death in full glee ; recalci- 
trancy mounted ; brigandage crowned. E\'ery generation has had its Jack Sheppards, and 
Dick Turpins. But Australia has put down the wickedness. With the "Kelly Gang" 
scattered and hung about fifteen years ago the chief violence halted. To see how deter- 
mined Australian authorities were in the extermination of the Bushrangers, you have only 
to notice the rewards offered for their arrest : $5000 for the arrest of Daniel Morgan ; $5000 
for Benjamin Hall ; $5000 for Thomas Clark ; I5000 for John Gilbert ; $40,000 for the 
" Kelly Gang " before mentioned. A costly and imposing monument stands on the main 
street of Mansfield, Australia, in honor of the three policemen who lost their lives in 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. i8i 

contending with the Kelly bushrangers. Why not monuments to brave policemen who in any 
country die in the interests of law and order. Certainly it requires as much courage, alone 
and single-handed, to confront a blood-thirsty villain, as to go into a battle where out of a 
thousand men in a regiment there is no probability that more than twenty per cent will be 
slain. Monuments for soldiers by all means, but monuments for heroic constabulary, just 
as important. Bushranging in Australia is a matter of histor\-, although you may to-morrow 
read of a man butchered in an Australian bush, as in the same paper you may read of the 
passengers on a Rocky Mountain rail train urgently invited to hold up their arms so as to 
make access to their pockets the more easy. 

More than anything else, I have been impressed with the people of Australia, their 
independence, self-reliance, and freedom from conventionality. Under God these people 
made themselves. Why will men stay in countries where their environments are hindering, 
■when there is'so much room elsewhere? In all these colonies are men largely successful 
in merchandise and law and medicine and theolog}-, who would never have gotten on if 
they had stayed in the old countries. Some mistake made before they left home would 
have kept them crippled, or their fellow-citizens had gotten in the habit of talking against 
them, or their social surroundings were depressing. They would have always been under- 
lings had they stayed at home, but they struck out, and ever since they have been free with 
any amount of possibilities open before them. 

Just now things in Australia are depressed as they are depressed everywhere, but the 
embarrassment cannot last. There is but One Being in the universe who knows of the 
immensity of the resources of Australia, and He is the God who made it. People talk of 
the law of the pendulum as though it were the law of man. No ! It is the law of God. 
Now we all know that if the pendulum swing out in one direction, you have only to watch 
it to see it swing out just as far in the opposite direction. Finance in Australia, as well as 
in America, for the last three years has been swinging out toward loss, toward discourage- 
ment, toward bankruptcy, toward ruin ; but the law of God will j'et make it swing just as 
far in the opposite direction toward prosperity, toward success, toward opulence. And this 
is gloriously true on a still larger scale, planetan,' as well as national. The silver pendulum 
of this world began to swing in the wrong direction about 5894 j'ears ago, as near as I can 
calculate. No adequate effort to swing it back was made until about 1894 years ago. Be 
not surprised that 1894 years have not swung it in the right direction as far as the previous 
4000 j^ears swung it in the wrong. During 4000 5'ears, it curved out toward barbarism, 
toward cruelty, toward darkness, toward sin, toward perdition. But it is beginning to swing 
toward Christianity, toward civilization, toward goodness, toward heaven, and will continue 
to swing that way until it has gone as far right as it went far wrong. What then ? Will 
not the same law make it swing back again ? No ! The world will then have accomplished 
its misssion, and the pendulum will be unhooked from the clock of the ages, and shall cease 
to swing at all, for time shall be no longer. What would be the use of the pendulum when 
there is no time. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

AT MELBOURNE. — "SOME BIG BLUNDERS." 

OUR reception at Melbourne, Australia, was as cordial and hearty as that accorded 
us by the people of Auckland, and in some respects the enthusiasm was greater. 
On the evening of August 17,1 delivered, in the Town Hall, the following lecture 
on " Big Blunders," to an audience that tested the capacity of the building. 

The man who never made a blunder has not yet been born. If he had been, he would 
have died right away. The first blunder was born in Paradise and it has had a large family 
of children. Agricultural blunders, commercial blunders, literary blunders, mechanical 
blunders, artistic blunders, ecclesiastical blunders, moral blunders, and blunders of all sorts ; 
but an ordinary blunder will not attract my attention. It must be large at the girth and 
great in stature. In other words, it must be a big blunder. Let me premise that my ideas 
of human life are very practical. I have not much patience with those people who talk of 
human life as something you could pass on stilts. You cannot. Such a man as that is sure 
to be tripped up. I heard of a large religious meeting where people were giving their ex- 
perience. A man of great pomposity arose and said, " I am on board the old ship Zion, 
and I am sailing heavenward, and I am going at the rate of seventeen knots an hour, and I 
shall soon on this ship sail up the harbor of heaven." Another man with still more pom- 
posity, got up and said, " I too am on board the old ship Zion, and I am sailing heavenward, 
and I am going at the rate of forty knots an hour, and I shall soon on this ship sail up the 
harbor of the blessed." And he sat down. Another man with still more pomposity, arose and 
said, " I too am on board the old ship Zion, but the ship I am on is a steamship, and it is a 
steamship of 400 horse-power, and I shall soon on this steamship sail up the harbor of the 
blessed." And he sat down. When an old-fashioned woman arose and said, " I have been 
going heavenward for seventy years, and I have been going a-foot, and from the looks of 
things I shall have to go a-foot all the way, and if some of you people that are going by 
steam don't look out you'll bust your bilers." The most of us will have to go a-foot, and 
if anybody can point out to us the right path we will be everlastingly obligated to him. I 
am glad that you understand my subject. It is important to have it accurately announced. 

Some years ago I was to deliver a lecture in one of our cities, and on mj' way to the 
lecture hall I saw on a board fence the advertisement of my lecture. It had been partially 
covered up by other announcements, partially mutilated and mixed up with other advertise- 
ments, until the announcement on the board fence read something like this : 

" Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage will, to-morrow night, at Wieting's Hall, hold the fifth 
annital fireman's ball, will walk 100 consecutive hours without food or sleep, will welcome 
to the city Heenan, the champion of pugilists, will run a sorrel horse against any other 
for a purse of $500 ! " 

I never had such an embarrassing amount of work to do in one night in all my life. 
You have no such extravagant anticipations, but are only to listen while I speak to you 
about big blunders. 

Blunder the first : Multiplicity of occupations. I have a friend who is a very good 
painter, and a very good poet, and a very good speaker, and he can do a half dozen things 

(182) 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



183 



■well, but he is the exception. The general rule is that a man can do only one thing 
well. Perhaps there are two things to do. First, find your sphere ; secondly, keep it. 
The general rule is, masons, stick to your trowel ; carpenters, stick to your plane ; lawyers, 
stick to your brief; ministers, stick to your pulpit, and don't go off lecturing. Fireman, 
if you please, one locomotive at a time ; navigator, one ship ; professor, one department. 
The mighty men of all professions were men of one occupation. Thorvalston at sculpture, 
Irving at literature, Rothschild at banking, Forrest at acting, Brumel at engineering, Ross 
at navigation. Punch at joking. Sometimes a man is prepared by Providence through a 
variety of occupations for some great mission. Hugh Miller must climb up to his high 
work through the quarries of Cromarty. And sometimes a man gets prepared for his 
work through sheer trouble. He goes from misfortune to misfortune, and from disaster to 
disaster, and from persecution to persecution, until he is ready to graduate from the 
University of Hard Knocks. I know tlie old poets used to say that a man got inspiration by 
sleeping on Mount Parnas- 
sus. That is absurd. That 
is not the way men get in- 
spiration. It is not the man 
on the mountain, but tlie 
mountain on the man, and 
the effort to throw it off that 
brings men to the position 
for which God intended 
them. But the general rule 
is that by the time thirt}- 
years of age is reached the 
occupation is thoroughl}' de- 
cided, and there will be suc- 
cess in that direction if it be 
thoroughly followed. It 
does not make much differ- 
ence what you do, so far as 
the mere item of success is 
concerned, if you only do it. 
Brandreth can make a for- 
tune at pills, Adams by expressage, Cooper by manufacturing glue, Genin by selling hats, 
contractors by manufacturing shoddy, merchants by putting sand in sugar, beet juice in 
vinegar, chicory in coffee, and lard in butter. One of the costliest dwellings in Phila- 
delphia was built out of eggs. Palaces have been built out of spools, out of toothache 
drops, out of hides, out of pigs' feet, out of pickles, out of tooth-brushes, out of hose, 
h-o-s-e and h-o-e-s, out of fine-tooth combs, out of ice, out of water, out of birds, out of 
bones, out of shells, out of steam, out of thunder and lightning. 

The difference between conditions in life is not so much a difference in the frnitfulness 
of occupations as it is a difference in the endowment of men with tliat great and magnificent 
attribute of stick-to-itiveness. Mr. Plod-on was doing a flourishing business at selling 
banties, but he wanted to do all kinds of huckstering, and his nice little property took 
wings of ducks and turkeys and shanghais and flew away. Mr. Loomdri\-cr had an 
excellent factory on the Merrimac, and made beautiful carpets, but he concluded to put up 




TOWN HALT. ORGAN, FIFTH LARGEST IN THE WORI.n, MELBOURNE, 
AUSTRALIA. 



i84 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

another kind of factory for the making of shawls, and one day there was a nice little 
quarrel between the two factories, and the carpets ate up the shawls, and the shawls ate up 
the carpets, and having succeeded so well in swallowing each other, they turned around 
and gulped down Mr. Loomdriver. 

Blackstone Large-Practice was the best lawyer in town. He could make the most 
plausible argument and had the largest retainer, and some of the young men of the profes- 
sion were proud to wear their hair just as he did, and to have just as big a shirt collar. But 
he concluded to go into politics. He entered that paradise which men call a caucas. He 
was voted up and he was voted down. He came within three votes of getting it. He never 
got any nearer than three votes. He got on the Chicago platform, but a plank broke and 
he slipped through. He got on the St. L,ouis platform, but it rocked like an earthquake, 
and a plank broke and he slipped through. Then, as a circus rider with one foot on each 
horse whirls round the ring, he put one foot on the Chicago platform and another foot on 
the St. Louis platform, and he slipped between, and landing in a ditch of political obloquy, 
he concluded he had enough of politics. And he came back to his law office and as he 
entered covered with the mire, all the briefs from the pigeon hole rustled with gladness, and 
Kent's Commentaries, and Livingston's Law Register broke forth in the exclamation, 
*' Welcome home. Honorable Blackstone Large-Practice, jack of all trades is master of 
none." Dr. Bone-Setter was a master in the healing profession. No man was more welcome 
in anybody's house than this same Dr. Bone-Setter, and the people loved to see him pass 
and thought there was in his old gig a kind of religious rattle. When he entered the drug 
store all the medicines knew him, and the pills would toss about like a rattle box, and the 
quinine would shake as though it had the chills, and the great strengthening plasters unroll, 
and the soda foimtain fizz, as much as to say, "Will you take vanilla or strawberry?" 
Riding along in his gig one daj^ he fell into a thoughtful mood, and concluded to enter the 
ministry. He mounted the pulpit and the pulpit mounted him, and it was a long while 
before it was known who was of the most importance. The young people said the preach- 
ing was dr}', and the merchant could not keep from making financial calculations in the 
back part of the psalm-book, and the church thinned out and everything went wrong. 
Well, one Mondaj' morning Messrs. Plod-on, Loomdriver, Blackstone Large-Practice and 
Dr. Bone-Setter met at one corner of the street, and all felt so low-spirited that one of them 
proposed to sing a song for the purpose of getting their spirits up. I have forgotten all but 
the chorus, but you would have been amused to hear how, at the end of all the verses, the 
voices came in, "Jack of all trades is master of none." A man from the countr}' districts 
came to be President of the United States, and some one asked a farmer from that region 
what sort of a President Mr. So-and-so would make. The reply was, " He's a good deal of 
a man in our little town, but I think if you spread him out over all the United States he 
will be mighty thin." So there are men admirable in one occupation or profession, but 
spread out their energies over a dozen things to- do and they are dead failures. Young 
man, concentrate all your energies in one direction. Be not afraid to be called a man 
of one idea. Better have one great idea than five hundred little bits of ones. Are you 
merchants, you will find abundant sweep for your intellect in a business which absorbed 
the energy of a Lenox, a Stewart, and a Grinnell. Are you lawyers, you will in your 
grand profession find heights and depths of attainment which tasked a Marshall, and a 
McLean, and a Story, and a Kent. Are you physicians, you can afford to waste but 
little time outside of a profession which was the pride of a Rush, a Hervey, a Cooper, and 
a Sydenham. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



185 



Every man is made to fit into some occupation or profession, just as a tune is made to 
fit a metre. Make up your mind what you ought to be. Get your call straight from the 
throne of God. We talk about ministers getting a call to preach. So they must. But 
every man gets a call straight from the throne of God to do some one thing — that call 
written in his physical or mental or spiritual constitution — the call saying, " You be a 
merchant, you be a manufacturer, you be a mechanic, you be an artist, j'ou be a reformer, 
you be this, you be that, you be the other thing." And all our success and happiness 
depend upon our being that which God commands us to be. Remember there is no other 
person in the world that can do your work. Out of the sixteen hundred millions of the race, 




OENRRAI, POST-OFFICE, SYDNEY, AI^STRALIA. 

not one can do your work. You do your work and it is done forever. You neglect your 
work and it is neglected forever. The man who has the smallest mission has a magnificent 
mission. God sends no man on a fool's errand. Getting your call straight from the throne 
of God, and making up your mind what you ought to do, gather together all your 
opportunities (and you will be surprised how many there are of them), gather them into 
companies, into regiments, into brigades, a whole army of them, and then ride along the 
line and give the word of command, " Forward, march ! " and no power on earth or in hell 
can stand before you. I care not what your education is, elaborate or nothing, what \our 
mental calibre, great or small, that man who concentrates all his energies of body, mind 
and soul in one direction is a tremendous man. 



1 86 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

Blunder the next : indulgence in temper. Good humor will sell the most goods, plead 
the best argument, effect the best cure, preach the best sermon, build the best wall, weave 
the best carpet. The poorest business firm in town is " Growl, Spitfire & Brothers." They 
blow their clerks. They insult their customers. They quarrel with the draymen. They 
write impudent duns. They kick the beggars. The children shy off as they pass the 
street and the dogs with wild yelp clear the path as they come. Acrid, waspish, fretful, 
explosive, saturnine, suddenly the money market will be astounded with the defalcation of 
Growl, Spitfire & Brothers. Merryman & Warmgrasp were poor boys when they came from 
the country. They brought all their possessions in one little pack slung over their shoulder. 
Two socks, two collars, one jacknife, a paper of pins and a hunk of gingerbread which 
their mother gave them when she kissed them good-bye, and told them to be good boys and 
mind the boss. They smiled and laughed and bowed and worked themselves up higher and 
higher in the estimation of their employers. They soon had a store on the corner. They 
were obliging men, and people from the country left their carpet bags in that store when 
they came to town. Henceforth when the farmers want hardware or clothing or books they 
went to buy it at the place where their carpet bags had been treated so kindly. The firm 
had a way of holding up a yard of cloth and shining on it so that plain cassimere would 
look almost as well as French broadcloth, and an earthen pitcher would glisten like 
porcelain. Not by the force of capital, but by having money drawer and counting desk 
and counter and shelves all full of good temper, they rose in society until to-day Merryman 
& Warmgrasp have one of the largest stores and the most elegant show windows and the 
finest carriages and the prettiest wives in all the town of Shuttleford. A melancholy 
musician may compose a " Dead March," and make harp weep and organ wail ; but will not 
master a battle march, or with that grand old instrument, the organ, storm the castles of the 
soul as with the flying artillery of light and love and joy until the organ pipes seem filled 
with a thousand clapping hosannas. A melancholy poet may write a Dante's Inferno until 
out of his hot brain there come steaming up barking Cerebus and wan sprite, but not the 
chime of Moore's melodies or the roll of Pope's Dunciad, or the trumpet call of Scott's 
Don Roderick, or the archangelic blast of Milton's Paradise Lost. A melancholy painter 
may with Salvator sketch death and gloom and monstrosity. But he cannot reach the 
tremor of silvery leaf, or the shining of sun through mountain pine, or the light of morning 
struck through a foam wreath, or the rising sun leaping on the sapphire battlements with 
banners of flame, or the gorgeous " Heart of the Andes," as though all the bright colors of 
earth and heaven had fought a great battle and left their blood on the leaves. 

Blunder the next : Excessive amusement. I say nothing against amusement. Persons 
of your temperament and mine, could hardly live without it. I have noticed that a child 
who has no vivacity of spirit, in after life produces no fruitfulness of moral character. A 
tree that has no blossoms in the spring will have no apples in the fall. A good game at ball is 
great sport. The sky is clear. The ground is just right for fast running. The club put 
off their coats and put on their caps. The ball is round and hard and stuffed with illimit- 
able bounce. Get ready the bats and take your positions. Now, give us a ball. Too low. 
Don't strike. Too high. Don't strike. There it comes like lightning. Strike ! Away it 
soars higher, higher. Run ! Another base. Faster. Faster. Good ! All around at one 
stroke. All hail to the man or the big boy who invented ball playing. After tea open the 
checker board. Now, look out, or your boy Bob will beat you. With what masterly skill 
he moves up his men. Look out now, or he will jump you. Sure enough, two of your 
men gone from the board and a king for Bob. With what cruel pleasure he sweeps the 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



187 



board. What ! Only two more men left ? Be careful now. Only one more move possi- 
ble. Cornered sure as fate ! and Bob bends over, and looks you in the face with a most 
provoking banter, and says, " Pop, why don't yon move?" 

Call up the dogs. Tray, Blanchard and Sweetheart. A good day for hunting. Get 
down. Tray, with 3'our dirty feet ! Put on powder flask and shoulder the gun. Over the 
hill and through the wood. Boys, don't make such a racket you'll scare the game. There's 
a rabbit. Squat. Take good aim. Bang ! Missed him. Yonder he goes. Sic 'em, sic 
'em. See the fur fly. Got him at last. Here, Tray, here. Tray ! John, get up the bays. 
All ready. See how the buckles glisten, and how the horses prance, and the spokes flash in 
the sun. Now open the gate. Away we go. Let the gravel fl)-, and the tires rattle over 




TOWN HALL, SYDNEY. 

the pavement, and the horses' hoofs clatter and ring. Good roads now, and let them fly. 
Crack the whip. G'long ! Nimble horses with smooth roads, in a pleasant day, and no 
toll gates — clatter, clatter, clatter. I never see a man go out with a fishing rod to sport but 
I silentlv say, " May you have a good time, and the right kind of bait, and a basketful of 
catfish and flounders." I never see a party taking a pleasant ride but I wish them a joyous 
round, and say, " May the horse not cast a shoe, nor the trace break, and may the horse's 
thirst not compel them to stop at too many taverns." In a world where God lets His lambs 
frisk, and His trees toss, and His brooks leap, and His stars twinkle, and His flowers make 
love to each other, I know He intended men at times to laugh and sing and sport. The 



iSS THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

■whole ■world is full of nnisic if ■we only had ears acute eno^ugh to hear it. Silence itself is 
only music asleep. Out upon the fashion that lets a man smile, but pronounces him ^^llga^ 
if he makes great demonstration of hilarity-. Out upon a sU'le of Christianity that ■would 
make a man's face the counter upon ■which to measure religion by the yard. "All ■wort 
and no play makes Jack a dull boy,'' is as true as preaching, and more true tlian some 
preaching. " Better ■wear out than rust out,"" is a poor maxim. They are both sins. You 
have no more right to do the one than the other. Recreation is re-creation. But ■while 
all this is so, ever\- thinking man and ■woman -will ackno^wledge that too much devo- 
tion to amusement is ruinous. Many of the clergy- of the last centur\" lost their theology in 
a fox chase. ]\Ianv a splendid business has had its brains kicked out by fast horses. Many 
a man has smoked up his prospects in Havanas of the best brand. There are battles in life 
that cannot be fought ■with sportsman's gun. There are things to be caught that you can- 
not dra-w up -with a fishing tackle. Even Christopher Xorth, that magnificent Scotchman, 
dropped a great deal of usefulness out of his sporting jacket. Through excessive amuse- 
ment many clergv'men, farmers, la^w\-ers, physicians, mecbanics, artists have committed the 
big blunder of their lives. I offer tbis as a principle : those amtisements are harmless 
■which do not interfere ■with home duties and enjoT.inents. Those are ruinous -which give 
one distaste for domestic pleasure and recreation. 

Wben a man likes any place on earth better tban his o^wn home, look out ! Yet ho'w 
many men seem to have no appreciation of -wbat a good home is. It is only a fe^w years ago 
that the twain stood at the marriage altar and promised fidelity- till death did them part. 
Xo-w, at midnight, he is staggering on his ■way to the home, and as the door opens, I see on 
the face inside the door the shado^w of sorro^ws that are passed, and the shado^w of sorrows 
that are to come. Or, I see her going along the road at midnight to the place ■where he ■was 
ruined, and opening the door and s'winging out from under a faded sha^wl a shriveled arm, 
cn^ing out in almost supernatural eloquence, " Give him back to me, him of the noble bro"w and 
the great heart Give him back to me ! " And the miserable -wretches seated around the 
table of the resta'urant, one of them ■will come forward, and -with bloated hand wiping the 
intoxicant from the lip, ■will say, " Put her out ! " Then I see her going out on the abutment 
of the bridge, and looking off upon the river, glassy in the moonlight, and ■wondering if 
somewhere under the glassy surface of that river there is not a place of rest for a broken 
heart Woe to the man that despoils his home. Better that he had never been bom. I offer 
home as a preventive, as an inspiration, as a restraint. Floating off from that, be^ware ! 

Blunder the next : the formation of un^wise domestic relation. And no-w I must 
be very carefuL It is so "with both sexes. Some of the loveliest ■women have been 
married to the -meanest men. That is not poetry, that is prose. The queerest man in 
the Bible ■was Xabal, but he -was the husband of beautiful Abigail. We are prodigal 
■with our compassion ■when a noble ■woman is joined to a husband of besotted habits, 
but in thousands of the homes of our countr}', belonging to men too stingy' to be 
dissipated, 3"ou may find female excellencies ■which have no opportunity- for development. If 
a man be cross and grudgeful and unobliging and censorious in his household, he is more of 
a pest than if he ■were dead drunk, for then he could be managed. It is a sober fact ■which 
every one has noticed that thousands of men of good business capabilities have been 
entirely defeated in life because their domestic relations were not of the right kind. This 
thought has its most practical bearing on the young who yet have the world before them 
and where to choose. There is probably no one in this house who has been unfortunate in 
the forming of the relation I have mentioned ; but if you should happen to meet with any 




x\ri\i: s\ii.ni;s (11 THI-; sofTit si;.\. 



I90 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

married man in such an unfortunate predicament as I have mentioned, tell him 1 have no 
advice to give except to tell him to keep his courage up, and whistle most of the time, and 
put into practice what the old lady said. She said she had had a great deal of trouble in her 
time, but she had always been consoled by that beautiful passage of Scripture, the thirteenth 
verse of the fourteenth chapter of the book of Nicodemus : " Grin and bear it." 

Socrates had remarkable philosophy in bearing the ills of an unfortunate alliance. 
Xantippe, having scolded him without any evident effect, threw upon him a pail of water. 
All he did was to exclaim : " I thought that after so much thunder we would be apt to 
have some rain." It is hardly possible that a business man should be thriftless if he have 
a companion always ready to encourage and assist him — ready to make sacrifices until his 
affairs may allow more opportunity for luxuries. If during the day a man has been 
harassed and disappointed, hard chased of notes and defrauded, and he find in his home 
that evening a cheerful sympathy, he will go back next day to his place of business with 
his courage up, fearless of protests, and able, from ten to three o'clock, to look any bank 
full in the face. During the financial panic of 1857 there was many a man who went 
through unabashed because while down in the business marts he knew that although all 
around him they were thinking only of themselves, there was one sympathetic heart 
thinking of him all day long, and willing, if the worst should come, to go with him to an 
humble home on an unfashionable street, without miirmuring, on a sewing machine to 
play, "The Song of the Shirt." Hundreds of fortunes that have been ascribed to the 
industry of men bear upon them the mark of a wife's hand. Bergham, the artist, was as 
lazy as he was talented. His studio was over the room where his wife sat. Every few 
minutes, all day long, to keep her husband from idleness, Mrs. Bergham would take a stick 
and thump up against the ceiling, and her husband would answer by stamping on the 
floor, the signal that he was wide awake and busy. One-half of the industry, and 
punctuality that you witness every day in places of business is merely the result of Mrs. 
Bergham's stick thumping against the ceiling. But woe to the man who has an experience 
anything like the aflHicted parson, who said that he had during his life three wives : the 
first was very rich, the second very handsome, and the third an outrageous temper : " So," 
says he, " I have had ' the world, the flesh and the devil.' " Want of domestic economy 
has ruined many a fine business. I have known a delicate woman strong enough to carry 
off her husband's store on her back and not half try. I have known men running the 
gauntlet between angry creditors while the wife was declaring large and unprecedented 
dividends among milliners' and confectioners' shops. I have known men, as the phrase 
goes, " With their nose to the grindstone," and the wife most vigorously turning the crank. 
Solomon says : " A good wife is from the Lord," but took it for granted that we might 
easily guess where the other kind comes from. There is no excuse for a man's picking up 
a rough flint like that and placing it so near his heart, when the world is so full of polished 
jewels. And let me say, there never was a time since the world stood when there were so 
many good and noble women as there are now. And I have come to estimate a man's 
character somewhat by his appreciation of womanly character. If a man have a depressed 
idea cf womanly character he is a bad man, and there is no exception to the rule. But 
there have been men who at the marriage altar thought they were annexing something 
more valuable than Cuba, who have found out that after all they have got only an album, 
a fashion plate and a medicine chest. 

Many a man reeling under the blow of misfortune has been held up by a wife's arm, a 
wife's prayer, a wife's decision, and has blessed God that one was sent from heaven thus to 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



191 



strengthen him ; while many a man in comfortable circumstances has had his life pestered 
out of him by a shrew, who met him at the door at night, with biscuit that the servant let 
fall in the fire, and dragging out the children to whom she had promised a flogging as soon 
as the " old man " came home, to the scene of domestic felicity. And what a case that was, 
where a husband and wife sat at the opposite ends of the tea table, and a bitter controversy 
came up between them, and 
the wife picked up a tea cup 
and hurled it at her husband's 
head, and it glanced past and 
broke all to pieces a beaiitiful 
motto on the wall entitled 
" God bless our happy home ! " 
There are thousands of women 
who are the joy and the adorn- 
ment of our American homes, 
combining with elegant tastes 
in the arts and every accom- 
plishment which our best sem- 
inaries and the highest style 
of literature can bestow upon 
them, an industry and practi- 
cality which always insure do- 
mestic happiness and pros- 
perity. Mark you, I do not 
say the)' will insure a large 
number of dollars. A large 
number of dollars are not ne- 
cessary for happiness. I have 
seen a house with thirty rooms 
in it and they were the vesti- 
bule of perdition, and I have 
seen a home with two rooms in 
it, and they were the vestibule 
of heaven. You cannot tell by 
the size of a man's house the 
size of his happiness. As 
Alexander the Great with pride 
showed the Persian princesses 
garments made by his own 
mother, so the women of whom 
I have been speaking can show 
you the triumphs of their 
adroit womanly fingers. They are as expert in the kitchen as they are graceful in the 
parlor, if need be, they go there. And let me say that tliat is my idea of a lady, one wlio 
will accommodate herself to any circumstances in which she may be placed. If the 
ivheel of fortune turn in the right direction, then she will be prepared for that position, 
f the wheel of fortune turn in the wrong direction (as it is almost sure to do at least 




JKNOI.AN CAVKS, INDIA. 



192 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

once in every man's life) then she is just as happy, and though all the hired help should 
that morning make a strike for higher wages, they will have a good dinner, anyhow. 
They know without asking the house-keeper the difference between a washtub and a filter. 
They never sew on to a coat a liquorice drop for a black button. They never mistake a 
bread-tray for a cradle. They never administer Kellinger's horse liniment for the baby's 
croup. Their accomplishments are not like honeysuckles at your door, hung on to a light 
frame easily swayed in the wind, but like unto the flowers planted in the solid earth which 
have rock under them. These are the women who make happy homes and compel a 
husband into thriftiness. Boarding schools are necessities of society. In very small villages 
and in regions entirely rural it is sometimes impossible to afford seminaries for the higher 
branches of learning. Hence, in our larger places we must have these institutions, and 
they are turning out upon the world tens of thousands of young women splendidly qualified 
for their positions. But there are, I am sorry to say, exceptional seminaries for young 
ladies which, instead of sending their students back to their homes with good sense as well 
as diplomas, despatch them with manners and behavior far from civilized. With the 
promptness of a police officer they arraign their old-fashioned grandfather for murdering 
the King's English. Staggering down late to breakfast they excuse themselves in French 
phrai^e. The young men who were her friends when she left the farm house for the city 
school, come to greet her home again, and shock her with a hard hand that has been on the 
plough handle, or with a broad English which does not properly sound the r or mince the s. 

" Things are so awkward, folks so impolite, 
They're elegantly pained from morn 'till night." 

Once she could run at her father's heel in the cool furrow on the summer day, or with 
bronzed cheek chase through the meadows gathering the wild flowers which fell at the 
stroke of the harvesters, while the strong men with their sleeves rolled up looked down at 
her not knowing which most to admire, the daisies in her hair or the roses in her cheeks, 
and saying : "Bless me! Isn't that Ruth gleaning after the reapers?" Coming home 
with health gone, her father paid the tuition bill, but Madame Nature sent in an account 
something like this : 

Miss Ophelia Angelina to Madame Nature, Dr. 

To one years' neglect of exercise 15 chills. 

To twenty nights' of late retiring . 75 twitches of the nerves. 

To several months' of improper diet A lifetime of dyspepsia. 

Added up making in all an exhausted system, chronic neuralgia and a couple of fits. 
Call in Dr. Pillsbury and uncork the camphor bottle ; but it is too late. What an 
adornment such an one will be to the house of some young merchant, or lawyer, or 
mechanic, or farmer. That man will be a drudge while he lives, and he will be a drudge 
when he dies. 

Blunder the next : Attempting life without a spirit of enthusiasm and enterprise. 
Over caution on one side, and reckless speculation on the other side must be avoided ; but 
a detennined and enthusiastic progress must always characterize the man of thrift. I 
think there is no such man in all the world as he who is descended from a New England 
Yankee on the one. side, and a New York Dutchman on the other. That is royal blood, 
and will almost invariably give a man prosperity, the Yankee in his nature saying : " Go 
ahead," and the Dutch, in his blood, saying: " Be pntdent while you do go ahead." The 



194 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

main cliaracteristics of the Yankee are invention and enterprise. The main characteristics 
of the Dutchman are prudence and firmness, for when he says " Yaw," he means " Yaw," 
and you no change him. It is sometimes said that Americans are short-lived, and they 
run themselves to pieces. We deny this. An American lives a great deal in a little 
while — twenty-four hours in ten minutes. 

In the Revolutionary war American enterprise was discovered by somebody who, 
describing the capture of Lord Cornwallis, put in his mouth these words : 

' ' I thought five thousand men or less 
Through all these States might safely pass, 
My error now I see, too late, 
Here I'm confined within this State. 
Yes, in this little spot of ground, 
Enclosed by Yankees all around, 
In Europe ne'er let it be known, 
Nor publish it in Askelon, 
Lest the uncircumcised rejoice, 
And distant nations join their voice. 
What would my friends in Britain say, 
I wrote them I had gained the day. 
Some things now strike me with surprise. 
First, I believe the Tory lies. 
What also brought me to this plight 
I thought the Y?nkees would not fight. 
My error now I see too late. 
Here I'm confined within this State. 
Yes, in this little spot of ground. 
Enclosed by Yankees all around. 
Where I'm so cramped and hemmed about, 
The devil himself could not get out " 

From that time American enterprise has continued developing, sometimes toward the 
right and sometimes toward the wrong. Men walk faster, think faster, drive faster, lie faster, 
and swear faster. New sciences have sprung up and carried off the hearts of the people. 
Phrenology, a science which I believe will yet be developed to a thorough consistency, in its 
incomplete stage puts its hand on your head, as a musician on a piano, and plays out the 
entire tune of your character, whether it be a grand march or a jig ; sometimes by mistake 
announcing that there are in the head benevolence, music, and sublimity, when there is 
about the same amount of intellect under the hair of the subject's head as in an ordinar}' 
hair trunk ; sometimes forgeting that wickedness and crime are chargeable, not so much to 
bumps on the head as to bumps on the heart. Mesmerism, an old science, has been revived 
in our day. This system was started from the fact that in ancient times the devotees of 
Esculapius were put to sleep in his temple, a mesmeric feat sometimes performed on modern 
worshipers. Incurable diseases are said to slink away before the dawn of this science like 
ghosts at cock-crowing, and a man under its influence may have a tooth extracted or his 
head amputated without discovering the important fact until he comes to his senses. The 
operator will compel a sick person in clairvoyant state to tell whether his own liver or heart is 
diseased, when if his subject were awake he would not be wise enough to know a heart from 
a liver. If you have had property stolen, on the payment of one dollar — mind that — they 
will tell you where it is, and who stole it, and even if they do not make the matter perfectly 
plain, they have bettered it ; it does not all remain a mystery ; you know where the dollar went. 

There are aged men and women here who have lived through -marvelous changes. The 
world is a very different place from what it was when you were boys and girls. The world's 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



195 



enterprise has accomplished wonders in your age. The broad -brimmed hat of olden times 
was an illustration of the broad-bottomed character of the father, and the modern hat, rising 
high up as the pipe of a steam engine, illustrates the locomotive in modern character. In 
those days of powdered hair and silver shoe buckles, the coat extended over an immense 
area and would have been unpardonably long had it not been for the fact tliat when tlie old 
gentleman doffed the gar- 
ment it furnished the whole 
family of boys with a Sun- 
day wardrobe. Grandfather 
on rainy days shelled corn 
or broke flax in the barn, 
and in the evening with 
grandmother went round to 
visit a neighbor where the 
men sit smoking their pipes 
by the jambs of the broad 
fire-place, telling of a fox 
chase, or heats at mowing 
without once getting bushed, 
and gazing upon the flames 
as they sissed and simmered 
around the great back log, 
and leaped up through the 
light wood to lick off the 
moss, and shrugging their 
shoulders satisfactorily as 
thewild night wind screamed 
round t|^ gable, and clat- 
tered the shutters, and 
clicked the icicles from the 
eaves, and Tom brought in 
a blue-edged dish of great 
*' Fall pippins," and " Dair- 
claushes" and "Henry 
Sweets," and "Granny- 
winkles," and the nuts all 
lose their hearts sooner than 
if the squirrels were there, 
and the grandmothers talk- 
ing and knitting, talking 
and knitting, rmtil John in 
tow pants, or Mary in linsey- 
woolsey, by shaking the old lady's arm for just one more " Grannywinkle," makes her most 
provokingly drop a stitch, and forthwith the youngsters are dispatched to bed b>- the star- 
light that drips through the thatched garret chinks. 

Where is now the old-fashioned fire-place where the andirons in a thrilling dnet sang 
" Home, Sweet Home," while the hook and trammels beat time? Great solemn stoves 




II IN COURT COSTUME. 



196 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

have taken their place, where dim fires, like pale ghosts, look out of the isinglass, and from 
which comes the gassy breath of coal, instead of the breath of mountain oak and sassafras. 
One icicle frozen to each chair and sofa is called a sociable, and the milk of human kind- 
ness is congealed into society — that modern freezer warranted to do it in five minutes. You 
have also witnessed a change in matters of religion. I think there is more religion now in 
the world than there ever was, but people sometimes have a queer way of showing it. For 
instance, in the matter of church music. The musical octave was once an eight-rung ladder, 
on which our old fathers could climb up to heaven from their church pew. Now, the 
minstrels are robbed every Sunday. The pious old tunes which our fathers sang have gone 
with them to glory. This old psalm on brotherl}- love was once magnificently chanted : 
''It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even 
Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garment." Now, it is sung to a fugue 
tune, and the different voices come in as follows : 

" True love is like that precious oil, 

That ran down his beard and o'er his head, 

His head ran down his beard. 
And o'er his head his beard ran down, 

His down, his down, its moisture shed. 

Ran down his beard, ran down his shed. 
Ran down, ran down, ran down, ran down. 
Ran down, ran down, ran down, ran down. 

His shed ran down his beard, 
And o'er his shed his beard ran down. 
Ran down, ran down, ran down, ran down." 

The plain English of which I take to be that Aaron, the priest, had an awful time with 
his whiskers. On one occasion after this fugue was executed, a spectator expressed the fear 
that after Aaron the priest had gone through such a process as that he could not have had 
a hair left. That was advancement in the wrong direction. But, oh, what progress in the 
right direction. There goes the old stage-coach hung on leather suspenders. Swing and 
bounce. Swing and bounce. Old grey balky, and sorrel lame. Wheel fast in the rut, 
" All together, yo heave !" On the morning air you heard the stroke of the reaper's rifle on 
the scythe getting ready to fight its way through the swaths of thick set meadow grass. 
Now, we do nearly all these things by machinery. A man went all the way from New 
York to Buffalo on an express train, and went so rapidly that he said in all the distance he 
saw but two objects. Two haystacks, and they were going the other way. The small par- 
ticles of iron are taken from their bed and melted into liquid, and run out into bars, and 
spread into sheets, and turned into screws, and the boiler begins to groan, and the valves to 
open, and the shafts to fly, and the steamboat going, " Tschoo ! Tschoo ! Tschoo !" shoots 
across the Atlantic, making it a ferry, and all the world one neighborhood. In olden times 
they put out a fire by buckets of water, or rather did not put it out. Now, in nearly all 
our cities we put out a fire by steam. But where they haven't come to this, there still has 
been great improvement. Hark ! There is a cry in the street : " Fire ! Fire !'' The fire- 
men are coming, and they front the building, and they hoist the ladders, and they run up 
with the hose, and the orders are given, and the engines begin to work, and beat down the 
flames that smote the heavens. And the hook and ladder company with long arms of wood 
and fingers of iron begin to feel on the top of the hot wall and begin to pull. She moves ! 
She rocks ! Stand from under ! She falls ! flat as the walls of Jericho at the blast of the 
ram's horns, and the excited populous clap their hands, and wave their caps, shouting 
" Hurrah, hurrah !" 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



197 



Now, in an age like this, Avhat will become of a man if in every nerve and muscle and 
bone lie does not have the spirit of enthusiasm and enterprise ? Why, he will drop down 
and be forgotten, as he ought to be. He who cannot swim in this current will drown. 
Young man, make up your mind what you ought to be, and then start out. And let me 
say, there has never been so good a time to start as just now. I care not which way you 
look, the world seems brightening. Open the map of the world, close your eyes, swing 
your finger over the map of the world, let your finger drop accidentally, and I am almost 
sure it will drop on a part of the world that is brightening. You open the map of the 
world, close your eyes, swing your finger over 
the map, it drops accidentally. Spain ! Coming 
to a better form of government. What is that 
light breaking over the top of the Pyrenees ? 
" The morning cometh ! " You open the map 
of the world again, close your eyes, and swing 
your finger over the map. It drops accidentally. 
Italy ! The truth going on from conquest to 
conquest. What is that light breaking over 
the top of the Alps ? " The morning cometh ! " 
You open the map of the world again, you close 
your eyes, and swing your finger over the map, 
and 3'our finger drops accidentally. India ! 
Juggernauts of cruelty bi'oken to pieces by the 
chariot of the Gospel. What is that light break- 
ing over the tops of Himalaya ? " The morn- 
ing cometh ! " The army of Civilization and 
Christianit}' is made up of two wings, the 
English wing and the American wing. The 
American wing of the army of Civilization and 
Christianit}^ will march across this continent. 
On, over the Rocky Mountains, on over the 
Sierra Nevada, on to the beach of the Pacific, 
and then right through, dry shod, to the Asiatic 
shore. And on across Asia, and on, and on, 
until it comes to the Holy Land and halts. 
The English wing of the army of Civilization 
and Christianity will move across Europe, on 
and on, until it comes to the Holy Land and 
halts. And when these two wings of the army 
of Civilization and Christianity shall confront each other, 
there will go up such a shout as the world heard never 
Omnipotent reigneth ! " 

People who have not seen the tides rise at the beach do not understand them. Some 
man who has never before visited the seashore comes down as the tide is rising. The wa\-e 
comes to a certain point and then retreats, and he says : " The tide is going out, the sea is 
going down." No, the tide is rising, for the next wave comes to a higher point and then 
recoils. He says : "Certainly, the tide is going out, and the sea is going down." No, the 
tide is rising, for the next wave comes to a higher point and then recoils, and to a higher, 




DAVID JAMAL, OUR DRAGOMAN. 



having encircled the world, 
" Hallelujah, for the Lord God 



198 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

and higher and higher point until it is full tide. So, with the advance of civilization and 
Christianity in the world. In one decade the wave comes to a certain point and then 
recoils for ten or fifteen years, and people say the world is getting worse, and the tides of 
civilization and Christianity are going down. No, the tide is rising, for the next time the 
wave reaches to a still higher point and recoils, and to a still higher point and recoils, and 
to a higher and a higher and a higher point until it shall be full tide, and the " Earth shall 
be full of the knowledge of God as the waters fill the sea." At such a time you start out. 
There is some especial work for you to do. 

I was very much thrilled, as I suppose you were, with the story of the old engineer on 
his locomotive crossing the Western prairie day after daj' and month after month. A little 
child would coine out in front of her father's cabin and wave to the old engineer and he 
would wave back again. It became one of the joys of the old engineer's life, this little 
child coming out and waving to him and he waving back. But one day the train was 
belated and night came on, and by the flash of the head-light of the locomotive the old 
engineer saw that child on the track. She knew not her peril. She had come out to look 
for the old engineer. When the engineer saw the child on the track a great horror froze his 
soul, and he reversed the engine and leaped over on the cow-catcher, and though the train 
was slowing up, and slowing up, it seemed to the old engineer as if it were gaining in 
velocity. But, standing there on the cow-catcher, he waited for his opportunity, and with 
almost supernatural clutch he seized her and fell back upon the cow-catcher. The train 
halted, the passengers came around to see what was the matter, and there lay the old 
engineer on the cow-catcher, fainted dead away, the little child in his arms all unhurt. He 
saved her. Grand thing, you say, for the old engineer to do. Yes, just as grand a thing for 
you to do. There are long trains of disaster coming on toward that soul. Yonder are long 
trains of disaster coming on toward another soul. You go out in the strength of the Eternal 
God and with supernatural clutch save some one, some man, some woman, some child. 
You can do it. 




THE ELEPHAKT BATH. 




CHAPTER XIX. 

GATE OF DEPARTURE. 

S we entered Australia at the Sapphire Gate of Sydney, we are about to leave 
through the golden gate of a bright morning in Adelaide. 

Near the end of my preaching and lecturing tour of Australia am I. It 
might be asked why should one in my profession not always preach and never 
lecture. Answer — A journey around the world properly accompanied is a very expensive 
journey, and I lectured to meet that expense. Beside that, the building of three immense 
churches in America, all of them destroyed by fire, cost much personal sacrifice. The 
$16,000 I paid in cash toward those buildings and five 3'ears preaching practically without 
salary, and an evangelistic tour in Europe two years ago which cost me personally, $5000, 
will suggest to most people the use which might be made of the moneys received for 
lecturing. But I have preached in all the great cities of New Zealand and Australia, 
Other clergymen traveling generally have their way paid by benevolent persons or societies, 
I pay my own expenses. 

If my preaching services in Australia and New Zealand are ever described, others, for 
the most part, will describe them. My Sabbath at Melbourne was a tj'pe of all the 
Sabbaths. Passing along the great Town Hall, the largest auditorium of the city — 
although the preaching service was not to begin imtil three o'clock in the afternoon — at ten 
o'clock in the morning, I saw the audience gathering, ladies spreading their shawls on the 
stone steps to sit there until the doors were opened. When I approached the Town Hall, 
a little before three o'clock, I could make no progress through the streets except by the aid 
of the police, and it was a struggle every step of the way. Finding it impossible to get 
an}' further than the outside steps, I preached a short sermon there. By a reinforcement we 
finally got to the door and entered. The Moderator of the General Assembly who was to 
have presided did not get in at all. The service went on until nearly the close, when the 
mayor of the city came upon the platform to utter some words of thanks, and those who 
had charge of the doors opened them to let the people out, but the tide from without rushed 
in, and a panic would have taken place had not the organist begun to play the Doxology. 
This quieted everything. The mayor, however, had promised that I would preach again 
from the balcony, and so about a half hour afterward I spoke to the people still crowding 
the streets. And so it went on Sabbath after Sabbath, and I hope some good was done, 
but the Great Future will reveal. 

As the Antipodean section of my journey is about to close, I am disposed to recall the 
faces of some of the more pronounced and eminent people whom I have met. Among the 
strong personalities of these Australian experiences is Sir Henrj^ Norman, now Governor of 
Queensland, but his name is associated with the horrors of Lucknow, into which he rode 
with Havelock, Outram and Peel, for the rescue of the women and children imprisoned and 
waiting for massacre. I said to him, " Sir Henry, you are the first person I have seen who 
was at I/Ucknow. Please tell us about it." He pointed out to me on a picture in his 
drawing-room the meeting of the generals in India, forgetting to point himself out, rmtil I 
asked which figure in the engraving was himself. As a few days after he sat before me, 
with his family and his suite in a great assemblage, I was almost diverted from what I was 

(199) 



200 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



sajdng to the memory of the scene through which that Scottish liero had passed. But 
instead of riding in full gallop, with torn epaulet and face covered with powder and blood, 
now he sits with countenance radiant with peace and Christian kindness. No wonder he was 
recently appointed by the English Government as Viceroy of India, at a salary of $125,000 
a year — the highest office in the gift of the Queen — instead of the $25,000 he is now 
receiving. But after accepting the appointment and being all packed up for India — as His 
Ladyship told us — his boxes at the door — he withdrew his acceptance on conditions of 
health. No man can pass through that which he has passed through without having it tell 
upon his physical endurance. Great is the rejoicing all through Australia that he remains 
in the Governor's chair. There is no more popular Governor in all these colonies than the 
genial, talented, heroic, immortal and Christian, Sir Henry Norman. 

Among those who have passed a lifetime in Australia, the most marked character, the 
most warmly admired by many and the most bitterly hated by some, is Sir Henry Parkes. 

Coming to Australia a poor baker's boy, he after- 
ward learned the printer's trade and soon pub- 
lished a newspaper of his own, setting up his own 
type and carrying the forms to the press on his 
own shoulder. He rose in influence and power 
until he could and did show me on the walls of 
his house, pictures of the men who had made up 
the five different governments of his fashioning. 
What Bismarck has been to Germany, and Glad- 
stone to England, and Sir George Grey to New 
Zealand, Sir Henry Parkes has been to New 
South Wales. Though eighty-two years of age, 
he led us briskly up and down stairs in his own 
house on the outskirts of Sydney, showing us as 
many objects of interest as I ever saw in the same 
length of time. He unrolled to us from his 
autograph books, full, hearty and sympathetic 
letters from the Prince of Wales, and Thomas 
Carlyle, and Tennyson, and Cobden, and John 
Bright, and John Stuart Mills, and President 
Grant, and Cyrus W. Field, and eminent men in 
all departments and all nations. Notwithstanding he is a little bent with age, and snow on 
his long beard would not make it any whiter, he looks as though he had years of work 
and command before him. He has a vivid remembrance of the honors bestowed upon him 
in New York by the commercial and literary magnates of America, Hon. Whitelaw Reid 
presiding, and the national escort afforded him across our continent from ocean to ocean. 
He is out of office now, but his enemies are trembling every time he takes his pen in hand, 
or walks up the steps of the government building. He is the kind of man nothing can keep 
down except his own sepulcher. Rugged, bluff, positive, assertive, defiant, volcanic, reckless 
of what others say or do. Had he been a soldier, he would have belonged to the cavalry 
and rode ahead of some " light brigade." Had he been a sailor, he would have been a 
Captain Cook and found some other Australia, had there been another to find. His eye, his 
shaggy brow, his lion-like face, his wit, two-edged, his railler}', his confidence in himself to 
do all that ought to be done, is something that impresses you at the time, and keeps you 




SIR HENRY PARKES AS HE NOW APPEARS. 




(20I) 



202 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

impressed whenever you think of him. He gives himself tip to his guests, until one feels 
he has no right to so much of the time of a busy and absorbed man. His enemies have 
extinguished him times without number, and still he goes on, and his opinion on everything 
is more sought after than the opinion of any man in Australia, whether that opinion be 
liked or reprehended. His name will go down in history and be associated with all the great 
movements connected with the welfare of these colonies. At a banquet recently given him 
on the eighty-second anniversary of his birthday, he uttered this beautiful sentiment about 
his remaining days : " Two things I know, first that the road is short, and next that it leads- 
to unbroken rest." 

And now, as I am about to depart, I meet with the two men most honored in this colony 
of South Australia. The one is Chief Justice Way, the Lieutenant Governor. He is the 
most popular man in all the colonies, and is widely known in America, which he visited in 
1892, as a delegate to the great Methodist Council at Washington. He presided with 
grace at my first meeting in Adelaide, and at his house he had assembled to 'meet me a 
group of gentlemen, clerical and lay, affable and talented. His house is in the midst of a 
garden to which nothing could be added in wealth of flowers and rare trees, and it has in 
the rear a fernery with rocks ingeniously scarped ; and a very Minne-ha-ha of falling waters, 
and an ornithological collection with an infinity of chirp and carol, and chatter and song. 
But after we had heard his birds sing and breathed the fragrance of his garden, and looked 
at the pictures, and walked through his palace of a home, we bethought ourselves that 
after all the grandest attraction of the place is himself. He has achieved his own fortune. 
The son of a primitive Methodist minister, he had nothing to start with but the good 
example and instruction of a consecrated parentage ; but he went right on and up in the 
legal profession to the top until there is nothing higher for him to win in these colonies. 
On the side of all that is elevating and good he is the pride and boast of all who know 
him. One such man in a nation is a conscious or unconscious lifting of the whole nation. 
If South Australia should by its own suffrage, or by the consent of England, become an 
independent nation, he would be its first president. If by federation of all the colonies 
there should be a union of all in one, he would be the first president of that. Long live 
Chief Justice Way, and may the world and the church have many more just like him ! 

Another vivid personage I met at this departing gate of the sea was the Earl of 
Kintore, Governor of South Australia. His invitation, calling me to the Executive 
mansion, did not remain long unanswered. One cannot help being impressed with 
his six feet three inches in height, straight as a Parthenon column, and with brawn of 
arm and blush of health resultant from fondness for outdoor sports, for the hounds love to 
follow him, and the steeplechase is apt to find him in stirrups or at the goal, where the 
lathered horses come in to be blanketed. Among my first questions when I got into the 
Governor's mansion, was, "Have you a picture of your father?" The Governor, without 
rising from where he sat, reached for a photograph and said, " That is father." Sure enoiigh, 
just as I saw the late Earl of Kintore in 1879 when he presided at three of my meetings in 
England ; one in a church, one at a philanthropic institution, and the other at Exeter 
Hall, on that memorable day when the body of the Prince Imperial of France was being 
taken through London, on its way from Portsmouth, where it had arrived by ship the day 
before, to Chiselhurst for burial beside his father, the Emperor Napoleon. As on that 
day the Earl of Kintore was introducing me to the people, in that historical auditorium, 
Exeter Hall, the minute-guns began to throb for the dead Prince, and the Earl impressively 
remarked: "We are assembled to-day to hear a lecture on 'Bright and Happy Homes,' 




DR. TALMAI 



iiiMiiiiiii'ir"^ 

iX TIIIC ]i].CK (II Till. sTliAMER CROSSING FROM CEYLON TO INIJIA. 



(203 1 



204 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



but that minute-gun reminds us of a once bright and happy home now desolate. Our 
sympathies are stirred for that young Prince Napoleon, who died in the service of the 
British Empire. God comfort his broken-hearted mother, the ex-Empress." You see, 
the present Earl of Kintore, now Governor of this colony, descends not from one who had 
nothing except the accident of birth, but from one of the noblest men Scotland ever 
produced. After parting from the late Earl on the streets of London in 1879, ^^ ^ Monday 

morning at one o'clock, just after midnight, he 
having taken me that night through the darkest 
parts of London to show me the midnight charities 
of which he was a patron, I said to my wife at the 
hotel, " You will never see Lord Kintore again, 
he is too good for this world. He will soon be 
taken." That was a September night, and in the 
following July he was lifted to the bright world 
into which he had helped so many by his benefi- 
cence and example. He was one of the dearest 
friends I ever had, and, except my own father, the 
best man I ever knew. His words at midnight in 
the streets of London were, " When you get to 
America send me a stick (meaning a cane) and let 
it be of American wood, and I will send you a stick 
from my grounds in Scotland." After my arrival 
in Brooklyn I received a shepherd's crook, cut from 
' the Earl's estate, but before the cane I bought for 
■ him had arrived in Scotland the good Earl had 
gone to his rest. What a man he was ! On week- 
days serving his country in the House of Lords, 
and on Sundays, though not a clergyman, preaching 
in the churches, not only the Presbyterian, the 
denomination to which be belonged, but in the es- 
tablished churches. I heard a rector of the Church 
of England chide him for not coming to speak in 
his cathedral the Sabbath before. What a 
strange sensation I experienced when I re- 
ceived from the good Earl a message, months 
after his death, not by spiritualistic convey- 
ance, but through an American clergyman, 
who was in Scotland when the Earl gave him 
the message and did not return to America 
until some time afterward. It will be easily 
understood wh}' I should be interested in the 
present Earl of Kintore, and why he received me with so much cordiality at his South 
Australian gubernatorial residence. The present Earl, whom I accompanied to the 
cathedral on Sabbath night, and with whom I afterward dined, is as stout an English 
churchman as his father was a stout Presbyterian ; but, as Archbishop Leighton, the 
Anglican prelate, and John Knox, the reformer, are probably spending the Sabbath together 
in heaven, it ought not to startle us that the present Earl of Kintore is a devout worshiper 




SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HINDOOS — AMULETS TAKEN 
FROM THE BODY OF TIPPOO SAHIB. 



THE WORLD AS vSEEN TO-DAY. 



205 



tmder the forms and ceremonies at which Jeannie Geddies hurled the foot-stool when they 
were read in her hearing. 

And now, I turn my face toward the sea. Indeed the steamship Massilia, of the 
" Peninsular and Oriental lyine," is now panting in the open roadstead of Adelaide, waiting 
for passengers. For two months I have had an unniingled delight with the audiences of 
New Zealand and Australia. I have waded through kindness, chin deep. If one-half the 
" God bless yous " are answered, I will be the happiest man on earth. Ever}- night, except 
when traveling, I spoke from an hour and a half to two hours, and generally addressed the 
clergy of the different cities Monday mornings. I have been encouraged, solemnized, helped, 
and rejoiced more than I can tell. May the richest blessings of God abide on all these 
colonies, whether they come into grand confederation as many expect, or stand alone, each 
one fulfilling its mission. I hear the clang of the opening doors of prosperity such as the 
most sanguine political prophets have never yet foretold. With a heart full of gratitude to 
these people who are seeing me off, and a prayer to Him who walks the sea, and holds the 
wind in his fist, I step aboard the ocean steamer. A long, last, affectionate, and prayerful 
good-bve to Australia. 




coMMANiJi-;i<-iN-cini;i' <>v thi'; hinmi-si; \kmv i.v cocrt DKBSS. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE ISLE OF PALMS. 

OHE Indian Ocean spread out both palms of its hands to pass us over from Australia 
to Ceylon. For the first two or three days it jolted us up and down like a rough 
nurse, to hint what it could do if it liked. But soon it became a quiet swing 
that put us under everlasting obligation, our ship running a new furrow across a 
new field blue as violets, that furrow soon to disappear as did all the other furrows of the 
deep. This international chariot moves along the streets of sapphire, but leaves no rut, and 
the horses of steam-power trample the royal pavement, leaving no sign of hoof during the long 
voyage of two weeks. We put out under the direction of a little finger in a compass box, 
and for fourteen days and nights the Titan engine, and the revolving screw, and the lives 
on board of a ship of nearly 5000 tons, obey the movement of that little finger. Straight 
as an arrow from shore to shore. We had on board a good bishop of the Church of England 
on the way to his new bishopric ; a distinguished general of the English army who is 
returning from a furlough ; merchants who, having made all the monej' they can make in 
Australia, or lost until they have no more to lose, are going home, that home in Europe or 
America. The captain, the officers, the crew, did their best to make everything agreeable. 
This Peninsular and Oriental Navigation Companj^ leave nothing undone for the safety and 
comfort of the passengers. Musical instruments ; electric lights : healthful bill of fare ; 
competent libraries ; cleanliness ; prompt service, abolished as far as possible the tedium of 
the sea voyage. The fire-bell has rung twice during the voyage, and there has been a rush of 
the crew, some with the fire hose, and some with pails of water, and others with boxes 
containing food for the life-boats. But it was only an appointed drill of the service, and 
there was no fire at all. This alarm, though a little startling at the time, gave new assurance 
of the safety of the passengers when we found that every emergency was provided for. 

But what a long voyage it was ! No one who has not undertaken a journey around the 
world can appreciate how far it is. The two distances which most impress us in this globe- 
encircling journey are from San Francisco to Auckland, and from Australia to Ceylon. And 
then a feeling of home-sickness comes on, — that strange sensation that no one can describe ; 
and the farther from home, the more intense and desolating. " I wonder what thej^ are 
doing now at home ? " "I wonder if any of them are sick ? " "I wonder if we will all 
meet again in the familiar place ? " "I wonder if they will be on the docks to greet us ? " 
" How peculiar that we have not heard from them ! " "I wonder how those letters happened 
to get astray ? " " How strange that the}' do not write ! " "I wish it were all over ! " 
" With so much of absorbing interest yet to see, the place that I most want to see — home, 
with the home faces ! " 

But we brush away all such sentiments, for we are soon to enter the island of Ceylon. 
With what spirit shall we enter it ? Some step ashore as hunters. The boxes carried 
ashore by the coolies are full of guns, traps, tents, ropes, cups and platters for extemporized 
breakfasts, weapons by which to take elephants, deer, bears and tigers. I can hear the tree 
branches crackle, and the tramping of wild beasts of the forest, and the splash into the 
lakes of the roebuck with the hounds close after it. I can see the trees at the door of the 
mountain hut hung with the dressed-meat quarters. I can see the struggle between leopard 

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THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



207 



and sportsman, now the prospect that the sportsman will slay the leopard, and now the 
probability that the leopard will slay the sportsman. Nights with stars looking down into 
lakes that have never been stirred of an oar, and jungles through which firearms have 
never resounded. Sound asleep with panther hide for a pillow. Early morning with 
richly-scented balsams, and violets, and foxgloves, and harebells, and cinnamon ga-rdens, 
and wild nutmeg ; and awakened by the voices of chattering squirrel, and the buzz of 
enough insects to confound entomology, and a heaven full of aviaries. Then after a 
morning repast, with appetite sharpened by excursions of many days through trackless 
woods, the hunter starts for the kennel to find all the hounds straining to get loose, spinning 
round and round in vortex of delight. Down, Tray ! Back with you. Sweetheart ! Hush, 
Blanchard ! Now, all out ! Burying their noses in the moss of the bank ; then the pack 




WEIGHING THE EMPEROR IN THE DEWAN KHASS, INDIA. 

Before the conquest of India by the Mohammedans, it was the custom to weigh the Emperor annually in the Hall of Audience, 
or throne room, in the palace at Delhi. His weight was counterbalanced by gold, silver, precious stones and perfumed woods, which 
were afterward distributed as charities among his deserving subjects. 

in full cry, their clangor sounding through the dark aisle of the forest. Oh, there must be 
health in such sport ! and I congratulate all who land in Ceylon as hunters. 

But others will go as naturalists. The sun with its intensification of heat, and the air 
with its superabundance of moisture, producing in Cej'lon more life, and on a larger scale, 
than any other region I know of. Life everywhere, winged life, scaly life, tusked life, finny 
life, reptilian life, insectile life. Warmth is life, and cold is death ; and the colder it is the 
more death, and the warmer it is the more life. Life in herds ; life in flocks ; life in shells ; 
life in clouds ; throbbing, glittering, burning, crouching, hissing, singing, roaring life. I 
congratulate entomologists, ichthyologists, ornithologists, conchologists, zoologists landing 
in Ceylon. 

Others will land in this island as lovers of human kind, as moralists and religionists. 



2o8 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



I gave my pennies in boj'hood toward the evangelization of Ceylon. The fidelity and self- 
sacrifice of the men and women who here have told the Christly story for the last sixty 
years, is a matter of thrilling history and of celebrative anthem in the high places 
angelic. 

There are two things I want most to see on this island : a heathen temple with its 
devotees in idolatrous worship, and an audience of Cingalese addressed by a Christian 
missionary. The entomologist may have his capture of brilliant insects ; and the sportsman 
his tent adorned with antler of red deer and tooth of wild boar ; and the painter his port- 
folio of gorge three thousand feet down, and of days dying on evening pillows of purple 
cloud etched with fire ; and the botanist his camp full of orchids, and crowfoots, and 
gentians, and valerian, and lotus. 




MODKRN CRUCuaXKjX UF CRIMINALS IN IN1)I\, 

I want most to find out the moral and religious triumphs, — how many wounds have 
been healed ; how many sorrows comforted ; how many entombed nations resurrected. 
Sir William Baker, the famous explorer and geographer, did well for Ceylon after his eight 
3'ears' residence in this island, and Professor Ernst Heckel, the professor from Jena, did well 
when he swept these waters, and rummaged these hills, and took home for future inspection 
the insects of this tropical air. And forever honored be such work : but let all that is 
sweet in rhythm, and graphic on canvas, and imposing in monument, and immortal in 
memory be brought to tell the deeds of those who were heroes and heroines for Christ's sake. 

But we must not anticipate. Here we are ! Land, ho ! What is it? Ceylon. Along- 
a low ridge of shore it rises out of the sea, with here and there a light-house growing dim 










coi.os.SAT, iDor, <ip iirnnnA, ni;.vr k.\m,vkura, japan. 

The largest hrouze idol in the world is the one shown in the photograph, which represents nr.ddhn, n glRanlic ini.iRe twcnl.v 
miles from Yokohama, in Japan. The fi^nre itself, tliongh in a sitting posture, is 44 feet litgh, and including the terrace is 65 feet 
high. It is made of bronze plates nicely joined together, and the head is covered with an Imitation of snail shells to pnitect It fronj 
the sun. This monstrous idol was set up about 600 years ago, but though exposed to the weather for so many ccuturies it still stantU 
unharmed by time. 

14 (209) 



2IO THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

under the rising glow of the greater light-house of the sky. At every stir of the screw the 
shores become more prominent, springing into hills, rolling into more height, and into 
mountains breaking off into precipices. Hovering over the island are clouds thick and 
black as the superstitions which have hovered here for centuries ; but the morning sun 
breaking through like the Gospel light which is to scatter the last cloud of moral gloom. 
The sea lay along the coast calm as the eternal purposes of God toward all islands and con- 
tinents. We swing into the harbor of Colombo, which is made by a break-water built at 
vast expense. As we floated into it the water is black with boats of all sizes, and manned by 
people of all colors, but chiefly Tamils and Cingalese. There were at least ten boats for 
each passenger that wanted to go ashore. It did not take long for us to get aboard a craft 
with five men to row and one to manage the rudder, and all determined to persuade us that 
we had chosen the right boat, and that if we wanted any other service during the day they 
were the only persons to whom we could safely entrust ourselves. 

The first thing was a place to find clothing appropriate to the climate. We had come 
from the winter of Australia, and here we were in the land of perpetual summer. We 
doffed the black and put on the white, and submerged ourselves under a hat higher and 
broader than we had ever seen, one of those edifices built in defiance of the tropical sun. 
Yet, after the heat of the day had passed, we started out in as new a world as would be to us 
-Saturn, or Mars, or Jupiter, or Mercury. 

Among the first places visited was a Buddhist college, about one hundred men studying 
to become priests gathered around the teachers. Stepping into the building where the high- 
priest was instructing the class, we took on an apologetic air and told him we were Ameri- 
cans, and would like to see his mode of teaching if he had no objections ; whereupon he 
began, doubled up as he was on a lounge with his right hand playing with his toes. In his 
left hand he held a package of bamboo leaves on which were written the words of the 
lesson, each student holding a similar package of bamboo leaves. The high-priest first read 
and then one of his students read. A group of as finely-formed young men as I ever saw 
surrounded the venerable instructor. The last word of each sentence was intoned. There 
was in the whole scene an earnestness which impressed me. Not able to understand a word 
of what was said, there is a look of language and intonation that is the same among all 
races. That the Buddhists have full faith in their religion no one can doubt. That is, in 
their opinion, the way to heaven. What Mohammed is to the Mohammedan, and what 
Christ is to the Christian, Buddha is to the Buddhist. 

We waited for a pause in the recitation, and then, expressing our thanks, retired. 

Near by is a Buddhist temple, on the altar of which, before the image of Buddha, are 
offerings of flowers. As night was coming on we came up to a Hindoo temple. First we 
were prohibited going farther than the outside steps, but we gradually advanced until we 
could see all that was going on inside. The worshipers were making obeisance. The 
tom-toms were wildly beaten, and shrill pipes were blown, and several other instruments 
were in full bang and blare, and there was an indescribable hubbub, and the most laborious 
style of worship I had ever seen or heard. The dim lights, and the jargon, and the 
gloom, and the flitting figures mingled for eye and ear a horror which it is difficult to 
shake off. 

All this was only suggestive of what would there transpire after the toilers of the day had 
ceased work and had time to appear at the temple. That such things should be supposed 
to please the Lord, or have any power to console or help the worshipers, is only another 
mystery in this world of mysteries. But we came away saddened with the spectacle, a 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 211 

sadness which did not leave us until we arrived at a place where a Christian missionary was 
preaching in the street to a group of natives. 

I had that morning expressed a wish to witness such a scene, and here it was. Stand- 
ing on an elevation the good man was addressing the crowd. All was attention, and silence, 
and reverence. A religion of relief and joy was being commended, and the dusky faces 
were illumined with the sentiments of pacification and reinforcement. It was the rose of 
Sharon after walking among nettles. It was the morning light after a thick darkness. It 
was the Gospel after Hinduism. 

Asked to speak, my address was rendered into two languages by interpreters, first into 
Cingalese and then into Tamil. Sentence by sentence, each sentence three times uttered. 
Strange, weird and solemn occasion. 

Going back to our hotel, we waited there until nearly eight o'clock, when we were 
taken to the preaching services to the old historical church, once the Reformed Dittch 
Church when the Hollanders held Ceylon, but now a Presbyterian Church, presided over by 
a minister from Scotland. The church was built in the year 1 749, and is now, as then, a 
graceful and majestic structure ; an imposing cruciform ; on its walls entablatures to the 
Dutch Governors who used there to worship, and until the time when the English took 
possession. The Dutch Governors are buried beneath the floor of this church. To my 
surprise, the great church was thronged, although our steamer did not arrive until ten 
o'clock that morning and the service was not announced until after twelve. How startled 
I was on opening the Psalm Book that night at the beginning of the service to find the 
words, " Reformed Dutch Church ; " for that was the name of the church in which I was 
baptized and received into membership, and ordained into the ministry. So they stand side 
by side : Church of Christ, and Temple of Buddha. Pillar of light, and colossus of gloom. 
The one proposing to cheer in this world and then give transportation to a world of radiant 
explanation, to go no more out forever, and the other a transformation from creature to 
creature, and a revolving wheel, and a passing on until personal existence is swallowed up 
as a drop of water is swallowed up of the sea — side by side those religions stand in Ceylon ; 
midnoon and midnight ! 



CHAPTER XXI. 

RELIGIONS GOOD AND BAD. 

nWO processions I saw in this city within one hour, the first led by a Hindu priest, 
a huge pot of flowers on his head, his face disfigured with holy lacerations, and 
his unwashed followers beating as many discords from what are supposed to be 
musical instruments as at one time can be induced to enter the human ear. 
The procession halted at the door of the huts. The occupants came out and made obeisance 
and presented small contributions. In return therefor, the priest sprinkled ashes upon the 
children who came forward ; this evidently a form of benediction. Then the procession, 
led on by the priest, started again ; more noise, more ashes, more genuflexion. However 
keen one's sense of the ludicrous, he could find nothing to excite even a smile in the move- 
ments of such a procession. Meaningless, oppressive, squalid, filthy, sad. 

Returning to our carriage, we rode on for a few moments, and we came on another pro- 
cession — a kindly lady leading groups of native children, all clean, bright, happy, laughing. 
They were a Christian school out for exercise. There seemed as much intelligence, refine- 
ment and happiness in that regiment of young Cingalese as you woiild find in the ranks of 
any young ladies' seminary being chaperoned on their afternoon walk through Central Park, 
New York, or Hyde Park, London. The Hindu procession illustrated on a small scale 
something of what Hinduism can do for the world. The Christian procession illustrated 
on a small scale something of what Christianity can do for the world. But those two 
processions were only fragments of the two greater processions ever marching across our 
world. The procession blasted of superstition and the procession blessed of Gospel light. 
I saw them to-day in Ceylon. They are to be seen in all nations. Nothing is of more 
thrilling interest than the Christian achievements in this island. The Episcopal Church 
was here the national church, but disestablishment has taken place, and since Mr. Glad- 
stone's accomplishment of that fact in 1880, all denominations are on equal platform, and 
all are doing mighty work. America is second to no other nation in what has been done 
for Ceylon. Since 1816 she has had her religious agents in the Jaffna Peninsula of Ceylon. 
The Spauldings, the Howlands, the Doctors Poor, the Saunders and others just as good and 
strong have been fighting back monsters of superstition and cruelty greater than any mon- 
sters that ever swung the tusk or roared in the jungles. 

An assistant master in the Royal College has taken the trouble to write out for me 
authenticated statistics which are not dull figures, but resoimding anthems. The American 
missionaries have given especial attention to medical institutions, and are doing wonders in 
the driving back of the horrors of heathen surgery. Cases of suffering were formerly given 
over to the devil-worshipei-s and such tortures inflicted as may not be described. In cases 
of accouchment, for three days the poor woman was kept suspended by ropes reaching to 
the roof, so that gravitation might do the work of relief. This failing, the patient was 
trampled by the feet of the attendants. The crisis past, the patient was laid on the floor 
and pails of cold water were dashed upon the sufferer, and it is only of God's mercy that 
there is a living mother in Ceylon. Oh, how much Ceylon wants doctors and the native 

(212) 




not reached. It .s know., to have stood ... s.lc.t n.ystery for ...ore th.-i.. i.sno year., and yd the i.i«cription» and ...clal nrc n« hriRhl a» 
c r h a,.'dr,t "";d°°-^->; ■' "-^^ "I"-: ^';"' '■"" "h--" "-'<'■••<'• "■•■' "•- »">''"'i-l« declare thai ,•, pierce, the entire depth „" 

<Ton.in'on "''°" ' ' ""= K-S""'"^ """^^ """ ="""»■■"' '"c world. U is regarded u the polladi,.m of HKldoo 



(iI3) 



214 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

classes of medical students such as were established here by Samuel Fish Green, providing 
the alleviations, and kindly ministries, and scientific acumen that can be found in American 
and English hospitals. 

In Ceylon 132 American schools; 213 Church of England schools; 234 Wesleyan 
schools ; 234 Roman Catholic schools. Ah ! the schools decide most everything. Churches 
here, and almost everywhere, are making prolonged effort to do in ten, or twenty, or forty 
years that which the school might have done in a week, if it had begun in time. How 
suggestive the incident that came to me this morning. In a school under the care of the 
Episcopal Church two boys were converted to Christ, and were to be baptized. An intelli- 
gent Buddhist boy said in the school that all the boys on Buddha's side were to come to 
this side of the room, and all the boys on Christ's side to go to the other side of the room. 
All the boys except two went on Buddha's side, and when the two boys who were to be 
baptized, were scoffed at and derided, one of them yielded and returned to Buddha's side. 
But after a while that boy was sorry that he had yielded to the persecution and when the 
day of baptism came, stood up beside the boy who remained firm. Some one said to the 
boy who had vacillated in his choice between Christ and Buddha : " You are a coward and 
not fit for either side." But he replied, "I was overcome of temptation, but I repent and 
believe." Then both boys were baptized, and from that time the Anglican mission moved 
on more and more vigorously. We express no preference for the work of any of the great 
denominations. They have all done a work that will last forever. The Wesleyans have 
been gloriously busy in all parts of Ceylon, building altars and saving the people. The 
native churches, self-supporting now, stand where stood the missions once entirely depen- 
dent upon England. The Episcopal Church has had here some of its most talented and 
consecrated bishops, and her sublime liturgies sound now in places where nothing more 
elevating was heard than the groan of besotted idolatries. Here Reverend William Oakley 
toiled in Ceylon Mission fifty-three years without once going home to his native England. 
The Baptist Church has preceded all other Protestant missions in this island, and dipped 
her candidates into these lakes and rivers in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost. 

According to the document put in my hand in this city, there are now in Ceylon : 

Christians 267,977 

Buddhists 1,698,070 

Hindus 593.630 

Mohammedans 197,775 

Others 2,286 

Making 2,759 738 

These figures suggest the magnitude of the work accomplished, and the greater 
magnitude of the work yet to be done. More than anything else it impresses me with the 
fact that if the Christian religion is not a supernatural religion it will never conquer this 
world. The Buddhists are in vast majority. The Hindus in vast majority. They were 
intrenched long ages before Christ was born. They have the advantage of being advocated 
by some of the most brilliant and learned men of all time. Take up a book of their 
proverbs, a.nd see that we have to contend not against imbeciles, but against principalities 
and powers. Read also some of the sentiments of their religion, and find that they equal 
Christianity in excellence. Buddhism has received reinforcement in recent times from 
Theosophy, the religion of moonshine, the religion of cranks, a religion advocated by those 
who can find but little to admire in the religion of Christ which purifies the life, and 




(215) 



2i6 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

establishes home, and advances civilization, and the wiseacres have plunged through the 
jungles of two thousand 3'ears to find their favorite god amid the buried cities of Ce5'lon. 
Some representatives of the British Government have also helped a revival of Buddhism. 
The priests of that religion are more honored here in Ceylon on grand religious occasions 
than the representatives of an}" other religion. And, more than all, the birthday of 
Buddha is now made a public holidaj', as much as Christmas celebrates the birth of our 
Saviour, and this under the flag of the best Christian Queen among the nations. Ye 
spirits of the men and women who, born under the shadow of the kirk of Scotland, or 
within soimd of the English cathedral rolling its doxology heavenward, or who, baptized 
in the waters of the Hudson, or Ohio, or the Savannah, came here to toil, and suffer, and 
die for Christ's sake, tell us from your thrones, what think you of this ? At near the 
close of the nineteen centuries which have passed since the meteoric finger pointed to 
the straw pillow in Bethlehem, we have to confront the fact that while there are in the 
island of Ceylon 267,000 Christians, there are 2,489,000 Buddhists, Hindus and Moham- 
medans. Nothing but the supernatural in the Christian religion can ever overcome that 
fearful odds. Behold, then, the responsibility of those critics of our time who would 
eliminate the supernatural and make the Christian religion a human affair, to be advanced 
only by human thought, and dependent i;pon human machiner}' ! We are, in the attempt 
to evangelize Ceylon, engaged in attempting an impossibilit}-, unless we have the help of 
the One who can divide the sea, and make the sun and moon stand still, and cause a 
shadow to go back on the dial, and set up a pillar of fire over the wilderness. But the 
victor}- is coming. The most of our artillery is in the heavens, and in due time it will 
be unlimbered. *We must, do our part and God will do His part. I believe the Mosaic 
account of the creation, and the geological account. It took millions of 5'ears to get out 
the timber for building this world, and hauling it to the right spot, but it took onh" six 
days to put on it the finishing touch to make it the fit residence for the bride and groom 
of Paradise. So the material for the reconstruction of our destroyed world may be a 
long while in gathering, and centuries of Christian and missionary effort may be requisite, 
but when the right time comes, it will require only a few years, and perhaps only a few 
days, to make it a fit residence for our Lord when He comes to take by the hand the 
Church which is the Lamb's wife. In the meanwhile, what an amazement the Christian 
world must be to Buddhists and Hindus. One of them said to the captain of oxir ship: 
" India is a great big country, and 500,000,000 inhabitants, but we have only two religions. 
England is an island with less than 100,000,000, and 5'ou have so many religions I cannot 
count them." No doiibt that Buddhist merely stated a mystery that must fill the minds 
of man}- of the natives of Ceylon and India. Presbyterians come here to Colombo and tell 
the nati\'es that as soon as they are converted they must be baptized by sprinkling. The 
Baptists tell them that as soon as they are converted they ought to be immersed. The 
Wesle}-ans tell them that in the churches they may approach God in any reverential and 
spontaneous, and unpremeditated way they choose. The Anglicans tell them they ought 
to confine themselves in public worship to the prayer-book and such forms as the Church 
of England decrees. The Roman Catholic Church comes in with its imposing rituals and 
proclaims the head of the Church is at Rome, and you must cross yourself with holy water, 
and let her lead your worship in Latin. From so much original and diverse advice I have 
no doubt many of them fall back upon the old religion and say: "Buddha's religion we 
understand, and it tells us just how to do, and it tells just the same thing, and to Buddha 
hereafter we will repair." 




FAMixR sc7;ni;s in as i-.am' im.ivx citv. 



2lS 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



There are only two things certain : the one is that the patient is vers' sick, and the 
other is that there are ten or eleven doctors in the room, each one with a different prescrip- 
tion. Who knows but that under* some especial baptism of power from on high, which shall 
reach all beliefs and all organizations, there may be found for missionary purposes a com- 
bination of all the present hundred sects, and taking the hint of apostolic times, each 
church shall take the name of the locality where it works, and as in Pauline, Peterine and 
Johannian times it was " Church of Smyrna," or " Church of Thyatira," or " Church of 
Ephesus," or " Church of Philadelphia," it shall be the Church of Ceylon, the Church of 
India, the Church of China, the Church of Sumatra, the Church of Borneo ? That church 
shall be in its worship both liturgical and spontaneous ; part of the service read so as best 




A STATE HORSE OF INDIA. 

to express the feelings of those who prefer that mode, and part extemporaneous to express 
the feelings aroused by the peculiar circumstances of that day, and there shall be on one 
side of the pulpit a font, and on the other a baptistery' ; a stone cup for those who would 
consecrate themselves to God under the falling of the morning dew, and a brazen sea for 
those who wish in most emphatic mode to have signalized that all their sins are washed 
away. In those daj^s there will be such a complete submergence from generous, and holy, 
and self-sacrificing influence, that the mere technicalities of religion will dwindle into the 
infinitesimal, until it will take the most powerful microscope of the double-dyed bigot to 
see them at all. And Zoroaster, and Buddha, and Mahomet will be honored for the good 
they accomplished, and pitied for the evil they inaugurated. But Christ shall be all in all. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 219 

Events and dates that are now perhaps uncelebrated and perhaps not noticed at all, will 
loom up into their deserved importance; such as, 1749, A. D., the Wolvendal Presbyterian 
Church erected Jiere at Colombo, and the New Testament translated into Tamil; 1796, the 
Pentateuch translated into Tamil; 1812, Auxiliary Bible Society instituted, a Baptist 
Mission commenced in Ceylon ; 1814, Wesleyan Mission commenced ; 1815, first Sunday- 
school opened by the Weselyan missionaries ; 1816, American Mission commenced in 
Ceylon; 1818, Episcopal missionaries arrived; 1833, Cotta translation of the Bible in 
Cingalese; 1845, Ceylon constituted an Episcopal See; 1869, the Presbyter}' of Ceylon 
established by the ministers of the Church of Scotland ; 1874, a religious conference of 
Protestants held in Colombo, which led to the establishment of the Ceylon Christian 
Alliance and the formation of the Sunday-School Union. 

Surel}' such events are worthy of commemoration, and the time will come when they 
will make more impression on the mind and heart of the world than the number of pounds 
of tea and chips of cinnamon shipped from Ceylon annually. But there is at present a 
great set-back to the Christianization and moralization of Ceylon, and that is in the liquor 
traffic. Buddhists, according to their religion, must not take strong drink, but multitudes 
of them do take it, and the presence of so many foreigners who are perpetually under 
stimulants is so debasing that it is uncertain whether foreign nations are doing most for 
civilization or the destruction of Ceylon. One million three hundred thousand rupees are 
spent annually by Government and by foreign and local organizations for educational and 
classical purposes in Ceylon; 1,300,000 rupees are spent annually in Ceylon for strong 
drink ; 1,300,000 rupees for gospelization ; 1,300,000 rupees for individual, social and 
national degradation. 

But our hope is in the God who made the Cingalese as well as the American, and He 
can as easily manage them in the mass as He can individually ; and if God can lift the 
tides at Liverpool Docks twenty feet with the slender silver thread of the moonbeam, 
surely He can lift all nations by the omnipotence of His love ! The long, bright, dazzling 
flash of the lightning on the summer sky may be only the pulling of the sword a little 
from His scabbard as if in preparation for the time when He will entireh' unsheathe it and 
strike for the setting of all nations free. And the thunder that rolls from these July 
heavens may be the rumble of the chariot of the Almighty as His harnessed purposes are 
being fastened to it for His descent along the sapphire steeps when He shall come forth 
conquering and to conquer. 



m 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE CINGALESE. 

ONOTONOUS is an adjective of no use in this island. The scene changes every 
minute. The busiest hour on Broadway, New York, or the Strand of London, 
is not more lively and spirited than the chief streets here. First of all, the most 
> interesting study is that of the people themselves. Brown as the cofifee they raise 
are the Cingalese. The man's hair is worn long and coiled on the top of his head. Conspicu- 
ously on the sides and the back of his head is a comb. It is made of the shell of the tortoise. 
The tortoise is hung over a fire until his shell falls off. Obtained in this cruel way the shells 
are said to be of superior quality. The man must wear this comb, though for reasons it may be 
covered up. I said to my barber on shipboard: "Are you a Cingalese?" He replied : 
" Yes." Then I said to him : " Where is your comb ? " He said : " It is covered." The 
woman fastens her hair with pins. To an American the men and women of Ceylon look 
very much alike. Embarrassing mistakes are sometimes made by an Englishman or 
American, supposing he is waited upon by a man-servant when the attendant is a maid- 
servant ; or by a lady of other lands supposing she is waited on by a maid-servant when 
the attendant is a man-servant. The faces of the masculine Cingalese are for the most 
part not only effeminate, but delicately beautiful. The smile has its home on almost every 
face. They are a cheery race, and do more of the business of happiness on a small 
capital than any other people I ever saw. The streets are thronged with these frisking^ 
skipping, running, gleeful folk. Many of them have lips blood-red with betel-nut which 
they chew incessantly and without any reference to the cleanly or picturesque. Into the 
betel leaf is wrapped frequently the areca nut and a sprinkle of lime, and then it is 
vigorously chewed. The compound thus chewed is said to be good for the teeth. I am 
glad it is good for something. Universal expectoration. They all have something to sell ; 
or they will sing for you a song ; or they will perform a dance ; or they will astound you 
with some sleight-of-hand ; or they will open your carriage-door ; or they will help you 
out, or help you in ; all of them voluble with the superiority of their own services to that 
of any other service. 

But all up and down the streets you find the Tamils, whose ancestors came over from 
India. Their heads are shaven and always covered with a turban in the presence of their 
superior. The Tamils are a swarthier race than the Cingalese. Thej' look as if they could 
do more work and that is their reported characteristic. 

But passing up and down the streets of Ceylon you find all styles of people within five 
minutes : Afghans, Kaffirs, Portuguese, Moormen, Dutch, English, Scotch, Irish, American ; 
all classes, all dialects, all manners and customs, all styles of salaam. The most interesting- 
thing on earth is the human race, and specimens of all branches of it confront you in 
Ceylon. The island of the present is a quiet and inconspicuous affair compared with what 
it once was. The dead cities of Ceylon were larger and more imposing than are the living 
cities. On this island are dead New Yorks, and dead Pekins, and dead Edinburghs, and 
dead Londons. Ever and anon at the stroke of the archaeologist's hammer the tomb of 
some great municipality flies open, and there are other buried cities that will yet respond to 

(220) 




BRAHMIN WEDDING. 



(221) 



222 THE EARTH GIRDEED. 

the explorer's pick-axe. The Pompeii and Herciilaneum underneath Italy are small com- 
pared with the Pompeiis and Hercnlaneums underneath Ceylon. Yonder is an exhumed 
city which was founded five hundred years before Christ, standing in Pompeiian splendor 
for twelve hundred years. Stairways up which fifty men might pass side by side. Carved 
pillars, some of them fallen, some of them a-slant, some of them erect. Phidiases and 
Christopher Wrens never heard of, here performed the marvels of sculpture and architecture. 
Aisles through which royal processions marched. Arches under which kings were carried. 
City with reservoir twenty miles in circumference. Extemporized lakes that did their 
cooling and refreshing for twelve centuries. Ruins more suggestive than Melrose and 
Kenilworth. Ceylonian Karnaks and Luxors. Ruins retaining much of grandeur, though 
wars bombarded them and Time put his chisel on every block, and, more than all, vegeta- 
tion thrust its fingers, and pries, and wrenches into all the crevices. Dagobas, or places 
where relics of saints or deities are kept. Dagobas four hundred feet high, and their fallen 
material burying precious things for the sight of which modern curiosity has digged and 
blasted in vain. Procession of elephants in imitation, wrought into lustrous marble. 
Troops of horses in full run. Shrines, chapels, cathedrals wrecked on the mountain-side. 
Stairs of moonstone. Exquisite scrolls rolling up more mysteries than will ever be 
unrolled. Over sixteen square miles, the ruins of one city strewn. Throne rooms on 
which sat 165 kings, reigning in authority thej^ inherited. Walls that witnessed coronations, 
assassinations, subjugations, triumphs. Altars at which millions bowed ages before the 
orchestras celestial woke the shepherds with midnight overture. 

When Lieutenant Skinner, in 1832, discovered the site of some of these cities, he 
found congregated in them undisturbed assemblages of leopards, porcupines, flamingoes and 
pelicans ; reptiles sunning themselves on the altars ; prima donnas rendering ornithological 
chant from deserted music halls. One king restored much of the grandeur ; rebuilt 1500 
residences ; but ruin soon resumed its sceptre. Now all is down ; the spires down ; the 
pillars down ; the tablets down ; the glory of splendid arches down. What killed those 
cities? Who slew the New York and London of the year 500 B. C. ? Was it unhealthed 
with a host of plagues ? Was it foreign armies laying seige ? Was it whole generations 
weakened by their own vices ? Mystery sits amid the monoliths and brick dust, finger 
on lip in eternal silence while the centuries guess and guess in vain. We simply know 
that genius planned those cities, and immense populations inhabited them. An eminent 
writer estimates that a pile of bricks in one ruin would be enough to build a wall ten feet 
high from Edinburgh to London. Sixteen hundred pillars with carved capitals are standing 
sentinel for ten miles. You can estimate somewhat of the size of the cities by the reservoirs 
that were required to slake their thirst ; judging the size of the city from the size of the cup 
out of which it drank. Cities crowded with inhabitants : not like American or English 
cities, but packed together as only barbaric tribes can pack them. But their knell was 
sounded ; their light went out. Giant trees are the only royal family now occupying those 
palaces. The growl of wild beasts, where once the guffaw of wassail ascended. Anurad- 
hapura PoUonarna will never be rebuilded. Let all the living cities of the earth take 
warning. Cities are human, haying a time to be born and a time to die. No more 
certainly have they a cradle than a grave. A last judgment is appointed for individuals, 
but cities have their last judgment in this world. They bless ; they curse ; they worship ; 
they blaspheme ; they suffer ; they are rewarded ; they are overthrown. 

Some of these cities were associated chiefly with some relic of Lord Buddha, who the 
most of the Buddhists say was only a man, but they all worship him as a god. One temple 




riEKPKNT PAC.lili 



224 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



contains his jaw-bone. Another was taken from his thorax. Another has simply a tooth ; 
although imitations of that tooth are in several of the temples. I infer from the size of the 
tooth Buddha must have been Cyclopean, Samsonian, Titanian. What he ever did with 
a tooth like that I cannot understand. How he worked a whole mouthful of them is to me 
a mystery. No human being I ever saw could afford to sport such an ivor>'. The sailors 
talk a great deal about the teeth of the wind, and I can imagine from the way that the 
tempests sometimes chew up a city that the teeth of the wind may be monstrous teeth, but 
Buddha was supposed to be peaceable, and what use a peaceable being could make of such 
an instrument I cannot see. But there it hangs — the sacred tooth of Buddha. Thousands 
of people come thousands of miles to see it. If it were a wisdom tooth, he must have been 

very wise. If it 
were what is 
called a "sweet 
tooth," it must 
have taken an 
enormous quan- 
tity of the sac- 
charine to satisfy 
him. I would 
like to see the for- 
ceps that could 
draw a tooth like 
that. What capa- 
city it would have 
hadtoacheifonce 
it had begun to 
grumble ! That 
tooth is at least 
two inches long. 
The temple is 
built at Kandy 
in honor of this 
tooth, but in a 
temple at Co- 
lombo you see a 

copy of the tooth. The fact is that the original sacred tooth is not now in existence, but 
the substitute does very well for the original. One king was said to have offered in sacrifice 
one hundred million blossoms in one day in honor of this sacred tooth. Most people 
have to be satisfied with looking at the case that incloses it, but the Prince of Wales was 
allowed to see the thing itself. A golden wire suspends a crystal case holding the tooth. 
Even the case containing the tooth is not always in sight. It is put away with all possible 
ceremony. Lock after lock, case within case ; jewels above it, and beneath it, and all 
around it. Emeralds, garnets, lotus leaves wrought in gold, and silken brocades, and 
iDarbaric splendors amid which it is wrapt and set. Oh, what a tooth ! Was ever such 
a fuss made over a molar, and that not genuine ? Other nations have sent embassadors 
to buy it. The Governor of Siam offered for it $250,000, but could not get it. Not getting 
it, that government sent an embassy to have the sacred tooth dipped in oil and a few drops 




THE WORSHIPPXJI, TOOTH. 
When Gautama, known as the Buddha, died' at the age of 80 (543 B. C), his body -was burned with 
great ceremony, and from the ashes eight relics were obtained, one of which was a tooth. This tooth has 
"been sacredly preserved ever since in the Buddhist temple, at Kandy, Ceylon, which is exhibited with 
great pomp once each year before vast crowds that come to worship it. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



225 



of the oil allowed them ; and so it was done. There are shrines in other lands with 
reputed teeth of Buddha ; indeed, more teeth than he could have found convenient during 
his lifetime, for 1 imagine it would be as much a trouble to have too many teeth as to 
have not enough teeth. Yet, let us not have our own teeth too much set on edge by the 
story of Buddha's teeth, for the fact is, that every tooth is sacred. Thanks to modern 
dentistr}', that fact is becoming 
better known. This important 
factor of the human body de- 
cides mastication ; and masti- 
cation decides digestion ; and 
digestion decides the disposi- 
tion ; and the disposition de- 
cides the destiny of nations. 
Thomas Carlyle thought every 
thing was going to ruin because 
of a sixty-year attack of dys- 
pepsia. How many battles 
have been lost or won ; how 
many sermons have been po- 
tent or a failure ; how many 
chapters of the world's destiny 
have been decided by the con- 
dition of the tooth ! More 
and more let it be guarded. 
All prosperity to the efforts 
made for its health ! Very sa- 
cred let the tooth be kept, 
though we cannot lift it like 
Buddha into worship. We 
suspect that almost every error 
is only a truth exaggerated. 
Adoration where there ought 
to be nothing stronger than 
admiration. 

Among the most absorb- 
ing chapters of Ceylonian 
events is that connected with 
the pearl fisheries. I am glad 
to find, since coming here, 
that Sir William Baker's 
prophecies concerning them 
have been a failure. An in- 
telligent Cingalese told me yesterday that the coming season he thought would be one 
of the most profitable in the Ceylon pearl fisheries. Although for years the oj^sters 
were gone, taking their jewels with them, the year 1891 flung a necklace that astonished 
the world. How much was the value of the pearls yielded I know not, but the share 
of the English Government that one year was $4,818,000. Yet the beautiful pearl in hilt, 
15 




THE SAAMI ROCK AT TRINCOMALEE (WORSHIP AT SUNSET). 
The Saami Rock of Trincomalee is believed by devout Cingalese to be a fragment 
of the hol3' Mount Meru, which was hurled from heaven during a celestial battle, on 
which account it is deeply venerated. Upon its summit a chapel was built and dedi- 
cated to Siva, which is best known as the Shrine of the Thousand Columns. 



226 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



or necklace, or crown gives no suggestion of the process through which it came ashore. 
But for a large and efficient army of police, the pearl fisheries of Ceylon would produce a 
plague. Think of the tons of oysters brought to the bank by ten or fifteen thousand fisher- 
men, and all of those oysters left to spoil in the sun, except the small pearl taken from here 
and there one, and all this goes on for about three hot months. There is also the scramble 
for the pearls which would, but for the constabulary force, be so easily stolen. It is 
interesting, also, to know that the island of Ceylon vies with the main coast in the 
production of jewels. The chrysolite is here. The garnet is here. The emerald is here. 
The amethyst is here. The moonstone is here. The sapphire is here. The ruby is here. 
Five hundred years ago the greatest ruby in the world was owned by the Emperor of 
Ceylon. It was about six inches long, and as thick as your arm. The Buddhist temple 
at Kandy is a conflagration of precious stones. The Indian Rajahs array themselves 
in the jewels from Ceylon. An English syndicate has been formed for gem-digging in 
this island. Ceylon itself is a gem in the world's coronet. In many a home of Europe 
and America are pearls brought from the pearl banks of Ceylon. They have been 
handed down from generation to generation, and the fact forgotten that they were by 
the diving Cingalese, at the peril of their life, brought up from depths just off these Ceylon 
coasts. Sixty thousand people under government license gather on these banks, and at the 
sound of a gun push out and plunge for pearls. The statistician fleetest in figures could 
not tell how much has been added to the world's wealth by these pearl fisheries. But 
one season an English Governor of Ceylon, Sir W. Horton, distinguished himself by nearly 
destroying the fisheries. As he approached the close of his term of office he had all the 
oysters taken from the depths and examined for pearls and the shells thrown away. He 
hoped by one mighty haul of pearls to show what a wonderful Governor he was, and 
imperilled the largest and richest incomes of this island. For a long while nothing seemed 
left of that great industry. The Government house that was built fell into ruins, and 
the eighteen-pounder that used to fire the signal for the boats to launch was rusted and 
unwheeled, and filled with sand. Nothing but gloom and thorny bush, and barrenness 
remained on that once favored beach, up which men carried the jewels that flashed in 
hilts of swords, and on the necks of beauty, and in the coronets of emperors, the jewel 
that seems to be the divine favorite, because it was used in sacred classics as a symbol of 
Him who is the Pearl of Great Price, and the twelve shining Gates of Heaven are made 
out of it. 



< ,4^, 





Ri ri R^ i< 



1 II] IR 11 MLV 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

ISLE OF IVORY. 

^^"^J AID a gentleman to me before I left Australia, " You will die in Ceylon." Some- 
^^^^^[^ what startled at such prognostication, I asked, " Why do you say that ? " He 
k % replied, " You may go home, but you will be so charmed by what you see in 
,^^— <^ Ceylon you will return and make it your home for life." Indeed, all ingenuity 
of figure and phrase have been employed to describe the charms of this island. As Lake 
Galilee by its loveliness has won three names, so Ceylon has been crowned by multiform 
nomenclature. Adam and Eve adjourned to this place after Paradise was confiscated — at 
least so think the Mohammedans. It does look like an Edenic annex. In Solomon's time 
it was called Tarshish, and the Land of Ophir. The Romans called it Taprobane. Sinbad 
the Sailor called it Serendib. John Milton called it Golden Chersonese. Moderns have 
called it the Isle of Palms, and the Isle of flowers ; the " Pearl-drop on the Brow of 
India ;'' the " Island of Jewels ;" the " Island of Spice ;" the " Show-place of the Universe ;" 
the " Land of Hyacinth and Ruby." Bishop Heber made it famous writing about it : 
" Where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile ;" a version somewhat changed by the 
speculator in cofiee who lost his all in Ceylon, and wrote of it : " Every prospect pleases, 
but no man makes a pile." Considering the coffee and tea this island has yielded, it might 
be appropriately called the Coffee or the Tea Caddy of the world. It is a mixture of Yose- 
mite and Yellowstone Park. 

Among the curious fauna of Ceylon are the flying-foxes. These creatures are like 
foxes with the exception that they have wings. They are fond of palm wine, and are often 
found intoxicated. The Cingalese put bowls under the cocoanut to catch the sap as it 
distills and the flying-foxes sometimes take too much of it. They are found drunk in the 
morning on the scene of their wassail, no one having been able to carry them home. 
Overcome by this inebriation, it in no wise injures them among other flying-foxes, for they 
are all guilty of it'. They belong to the brute creation, and ought not to be blamed for 
taking too much, and there are no temperance societies for the reformation of intemperate 
flying-foxes. The simple fact is that these flying-foxes are too fond of their cups. The 
word fox means " cunning," but there are in all realms instances of where those most cun- 
ning have become the victims of wine. Alas for these unfortunate subjects, whether they 
walk or fly ! 

Ceylon is the greatest place on earth for elephants. The sportsmen have driven these 
mountains of flesh back farther and farther until most people when they come to Ceylon 
see not a single tusk, and so far from beholding an elephant's trunk, if they do not keep a 
sharp look-out for their baggage they lose their own trunk. But the elephants afforded 
great sport to Gordon Cumming and Tom Spinner and Samuel W. Baker. Well on to three 
thousand of these monsters have been transported to other lands, while thousands without 
number have been hunted down, their carcasses left for the jackals after the tusks had been 
removed. 

But it is no easy thing to hunt elephants. I had an opportunity of undertaking it, 
but two reasons hindered me : First, it would not be just the thing for a man who preaches 

(227) 



2:28 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

the gospel of peace to be out killing elephants ; and, secondly, when I went out to hunt 
the elephants the elephants might come out to hunt me, and I do not think the result 
would be complimentary to myself. What an international joke was the imperial elephant 
hunt a few years ago in Ceylon. The sons of the Prince of Wales, Albert Victor and 
George, were coming here, and five hundred " beaters," as they are called, were out for a 
month " beating " elephants from the wide expanse of the forest into closer quarters where 
the royal boys might have the rare sport of killing them. But the affair was a failure. 
The ship in due time landed the boys in Colombo, but the " beaters " could not control the 
elephants. When the princes arrived in the evening on the approximate grounds, they 
were told that there were two herds of elephants only a mile off: one herd of fifteen, and 
the other of seven, and the next day the hunt was to begin, and the capture to be made. 
Not much sleep' that night, I warrant, because of the great things to be done the next day. 
But the elephants did not enter into the spirit of the occasion. That night they broke 
through the guards and went crushing down the trees and disappeared among the jungles. 
Wide and arduous attempt was made to re-assemble them where they could be noosed and 
tied up and reviewed b}^ the members of the royal family. The kraal, or strong enclosure, 
made out of trunks of trees was completed. A grand-stand had been erected. A place had 
been arranged for the tame elephants ; a place also for the wild elephants. Strong ropes 
were ready. The hunter's cry had resounded through the mountains : " Hari-hari-hari-hari- 
hari-hari-ho-ho ! " Expectation was at the height. The auditorium of the forest was 
ready. The audience was ready. The stage of the theatre was ready — but no actors. As 
when a bill of operatic or dramatic entertainment has for weeks been published, and the 
night comes, and Patti's throat is out of order, or the tragedian fails to come because of an 
accident on the rail train : so this elephantine failure to appear put everything into confu- 
sion. Prince Albert had arrived walking with the Governor. Prince George had rode in 
on a proud steed that leaped a stream without at all disconcerting his rider. The telegraphic 
apparatus and the cable had begun to click restlessly while waiting for news to be swung 
under the sea from Ceylon to the throne of England that the two grandsons had either cap- 
tured, or been present at the capture, of twenty-two wild elephants. Once or twice, to fill 
up the time, there had been a false alarm, shouting, and screaming, and snapping of tree 
branches, and cries of, " The herd ! They come ! The herd ! " which brought out the 
expectants, flushed and pale, upon the grand-stand ; but a vigorously resounding " Oh, 
pshaw ! " finished that part of the entertainment. 

The time had arrived when Prince Albert must take the train for Colombo, and he and 
most of the illustrious party left the scene. But Prince George remained with his tutor, 
the Reverend J. A. Dalton. I suppose the minister as well as George wanted to see the 
elephant. 

On the following day something was accomplished. A man got near enough to an 
elephant to be hurt, and was killed, and an elephant came to grief, the tail of the elephant 
carried off to Prince George as a troph)', a slight souvenir, a memento. But all were 
disappointed, and the Governor blamed Saunders, and Saunders blamed Dawson, and 
Ekreligoda, the old chief who had been busy with the five hundred " beaters " in gathering 
fifteen of the tuskers, blamed Iddomalgoda, the old chief who had gathered the seven 
tuskers, and the chagrined spectators blamed Ceylon. The fact was, nobody was to blame. 
The elephants simply declined to take part in the mountain drama. They are a wily, 
intelligent and affectionate race. Again and again a group of them have been seen standing 
in silence about the stretched-out carcass of some one of their familj'. The wrathiest 




THE WAR' ELEPHANT OF IXIJIA 



230 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



elephantine stroke ever given is at him who dares wound her young. Harnessed and put in 
shafts, there have been instances where they have dropped dead under the humiliation. Biit 
the strength and uncouthness of these creatures diverted the world from their gentler quali- 
ties. They must have ears very impressionable. If one be accompanied by an elephant-char- 
mer a whole herd will do no damage. Such a charmer has but to hum the words, " Om-am- 
ari-navi-saringham-saravaye," and the whole herd fall back terrified and rush back into the 
jungle, — under what spell, beastly or demoniac, no one surmises. How the old monster has 
come swinging down the centuries ! In ancient battle the elephants swung their tusks to 

the slaying of the opposing hosts. 
After all other means of carrying 
beseiged gates have failed, they 
have been taken by elephants. 
One of these ancient cities of Cey- 
lon stood up defiant month after 
month against all assault. Then 
Kadol, a famous war elephant, 
was sent to charge the gate. 
Against it he hurled himself, a 
living battering-ram. Red-hot 
lead poured on him from the 
heights, he retreated. Then he 
was encased in metal plates and 
started for another charge, and 
hurling himself again, and again, 
and again against the gate, it burst 
open and the fortress was taken. 
Vast, mysterious, affectionate, 
gentle, over-powering monster ! 
For centuries he held possession 
of these forests, and he still washes 
in these lakes, and trumpets to 
the mountain hurricane. If prac- 
tical use can be made of him, let 
the hunters come on with their 
fire-arms, or their traps ; but if it 
be merely to find sport that they 
lacerate, and wound, and slay, let 
them take less noble game. 

Of one other creature of Cey- 
lon I make mention, and that is 
the most dreadful thing that glides the earth, — the cobra. Its bite is death, and thousands 
have expired under its fang. It was a mystery to me that the people of Ceylon and 
India did not rise for its extirpation, but the fact is the cobra is considered sacred, and to 
have divine power, and therefore the most celebrated descendant of that old serpent, the 
devil, lives on, coils up in the hall-way, attacks the bare feet of the coolie, strikes at the 
hunter, and is as potent now to destroy as when it stung into fatal paroxysm the children 
of the first missionaries. 




LOWER FLIGHT OF ROCK STEPS AT MIHINT\LE 
Mihin tale is a rocky mountain looo feet high, to which King Dewenipiatissa 
was enticed by the god Mahindo in the form of a deer, and there converted to 
Buddhism, on which account it is deeply venerated. The summit is reached by a 
flight of 1S40 stepG of gneiss rock, some of which are 20 feet long. The sight of 
numerous priests in yellow robes, and multitudes of devotees ascending and de- 
scending is one not easily forgotten. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 231 

The cobra is a genuine disciple of Buddha. In his temple you find a statue of its 
founder hovered over by the hood of the cobra, as in cathedrals there is a' halo of light 
around the Madonna. To kill the cobra is to offend Deity. To save its life the native will 
coax the cobra into a basket of leaves and float him down the river. In many cases the cobra 
has been domesticated, and defends the house like a watch-dog, and crawls up into the lap of 
the matron, or licks the milk from the saucer of the children. How beautiful it must be to 
have one of them coiled around your pillow ! The dear pets ! 

There is a story among these people of Ceylon that two snakes, the cobra and ticprolonga, 
at a well met a child and asked from her a drink. She said she would give them a drink if 
they would not hurt her. They promised. The cobra kept his promise, but the ticprolonga 
stung the child to death. Hence the ticprolonga is hated, but the cobra is honored and 
worshiped. 

But the cobra has an enemy which, though small, is capable of grappling with it, and 
that is the mongoose, which grows to about the size of a small cat. When not called the 
mongoose, it is called the ichneumon. It feeds on an herb which is an antidote to the cobra's 
poison. The cobra trembles and cowers before it. The mode of battle sometimes chosen 
by the mongoose is to bite off the head of the cobra. This radical style of battle leaves 
nothing much to be done. After the cobra has lost his head he cannot again rally his 
forces. The mongoose has been taken into other lands for exterminating purposes ; to 
Australia to kill rabbits, and to the West Indies to kill the rats. I suppose in all depart- 
ments of life that when there is a pest, there is an exterminator ; where there is an evil, 
there is a cure ; where there is a cobra, there is a mongoose. Down with this leligion of 
snakes ! . 

But this reminds me that it is supposed by vast multitudes that Ceylon was the original 
Garden of Eden, where the snake first appeared on reptilian mission. There are reasons for 
belief that this was the site where the first homestead was opened and destroyed. It is so 
near the equator that there are not more than 12° of Fahrenheit difference all the year 
round. Perpetual foliage, perpetual fruit, and all styles of animal life prosper. As far as 
warmth is concerned, no clothes are needed, and the fig-leaves would still be appropriate 
fashion if circumstances had not abolished the Edenese patterns. What luxuriance, and 
abundance, and superabundance of life ! What styles of plumage do not the birds sport ! 
What styles of scale do not the fishes reveal ! What styles of song do not the groves have 
in their libretto I Here on the roadside and clear out on the beach of the sea stands the 
cocoanut tree, saying : " Take my leaves for shade. Take the juice of my fruit for delectable 
drink. Take my saccharine for sugar. Take my fibre for the cordage of j-our ships. Take 
my oil to kindle your lamps ! Take my wood to fashion your cups and pitchers. Take 
my leaves to thatch your roofs. Take my smooth surface on which to print }our books. 
Take my 30,000,000 trees covering 500,000 acres, and with the exportation enrich the 
world. I will wave in your fans, and spread abroad in your umbrellas. I will vibrate in 
your musical instruments. I will be the scrubbing-brushes of your floors." 

Here also stands the palmyra tree, saying : " I am at your disposal with these arms. I 
fed your ancestors one hundred and fifty years ago, and with the same arms I will feed 
your descendants one hundred and fifty years from now. I defy the centuries ! " 

Here also stands the nutmeg tree, saying : " I am ready to spice your beverages, and 
enrich your puddings and with my sweet dust make insipid things palatable." 

Here also stands the coffee plant, saying : " With the liquid boiled from my berry I 
stimulate the nations morning by morning." 



232 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



Here stands the tea plant, saying : " With the liquid boiled from my leaf I soothe the 
world's nerves and stimulate the world's conversation evening by evening." 

Here stands the cinchona, saying : " I am the foe of malaria. In all climates my bitter- 
ness is the slaughter of fevers." What miracles of productiveness are these islands. Enough 
sugar to sweeten all the world's beverages ; enough bananas to fill all the world's fruit- 
baskets ; enough rice to mix all the world's puddings ; enough cocoanuts to powder all the 
world's cakes ; enough flowers to garland all the world's beauty. 

But this evening, riding through a cinnamon grove, I first tasted the leaves and bark 
of that condiment so valuable and delicate that transported on ships its aroma is dispelled 
if placed near a rival bark. Of such great value is the cinnamon shrub that years ago 
those who injured it in Ceylon were put to death. But that which once was a jungle 




SHRINE ON THE SUMMIT OF ADAM'S PEAK AND THE SHADOW OF THE PEAK. 
There is much disputing about this sacred footpriut ; some Christians declare it was made by the Apostle Thomas ; the Hindoos 
say it is an impression left bj' Siva's foot ; the Buddhists maintain that it was left by their Great Master, while the Mohammedans 
assert that the print was produced by Adam when he was cast out of Paradise and while he stood on one foot as a penance for his sins. 

of cinnamon is this evening a park of gentlemen's residences. The long, white dwelling- 
houses are bounded with this shrub and all other styles of growth congregated here, 
making it a botanic garden. Doves called cinnamon doves hop among the branches, and 
crows, more poetically styled ravens, which never could sing, but think they can, fly across 
the road giving full test to their vocables, Birds which learned their chanting under the 
very eaves of Heaven overpower all with their " Grand March" of the tropics. The hibiscus 
dapples the scene with its scarlet clusters. All shades of brown, and emerald, and saffron 
and flamboyance, melons, limes, mangosteens, custard-apples, guavas, pine-apples, jessamine 
so laden with aroma they have to hold fast to the wall, and begonias, gloriosas on fire, and 
orchids so delicate other lands must keep them under conservatory, but here defiant of all 
weather, and flowers more or less akin to the azaleas, and honeysuckles, and floxes, and 
fuchsias, and chrysanthemums, and rhododendrons, and fox-gloves, and pansies, which dye 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



233 



the plains and mountains of Ceylon with Heaven. The evening hour burns incense of all 
styles of aromatics. The convolvulus, blue as though the sky had fallen, and butterflies 
spangling the air, and arms of trees sleeved with blossoms, and rocks upholstered of moss, 
commingling sounds, and sights, and odors until eye, and ear, and nostril, vie with each 
other as to which sense shall open the door to the most enchantment. A struggle between 
music, and perfume, and iridescence. Oleanders reeling in intoxication of color. Great 
banyan trees that have been changing their mind for centuries, each century carrying out a 
new plan of growth, attract our attention, and see us pass in this year of 1894, as they saw 
pass the generations of 1794, and 1694. Colombo is so thoroughly embowered in foliage 
that if you go into one of its towers and look down upon the city of 130,000 people you 
cannot see a house. Oh, the trees of Ceylon ! May you live to behold the morning climb- 
ing down through their branches, or the evening tipping their leaves with amber and gold ! 
I forgive the Buddhist for the worship of trees until they know of the God who made the 
trees. I wonder not that there are some trees in Ceylon called sacred. To me all trees are 
sacred. I wonder not that before one of them the inhabitants burn camphor flowers, and 
hang lamps around its branches, and a hundred thousand people each 3'ear make pilgrimage 
to that tree. Worship something man must, and until he hear of the only Being worth)^ of 
worship, what so elevating as a tree ! What glory enthroned amid its foliage ! What a 
majestic doxology spreads out in its branches ! What a voice when the tempests pass 
through it ! How it looks down upon the cradle and the grave of centuries ! As the fruit 
of one tree unlawfully eaten struck the race with woe, and the uplifting of another tree 
brings peace to the soul, let the woodman spare the tree, and all nations honor it, if, through 
higher teaching, we do not. Tike the Ceylonese, worship it ! How consolatory that when 
we no more walk under the tree branches on earth we may see the " Tree of life which 
bears twelve manner of fruit, and yields her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree 
are for the healing of the nations ! " 




GROUP OF HINDOO GIRLS AT THEIR TOILET. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



ENTRANCE TO INDIA. 



OHE Bengal Bay, notwithstanding its reputation for cyclones, smiled on us all the 
way until the color of its water changed, by reason of the large contribution of 
mud which the river Hooghlj', one of the mouths of the Ganges, makes to it. 
Up this river we must go one hundred miles before we reach that for which we 
are longing — a sight of the city of Calcutta. We have taken on a pilot, and yet must 
anchor for the night outside, as the river Hooghly is constantly changing its habits, and sud- 
denly deposits sand-bars, which capsize ships, putting them all under except the top of the 
masts. One of the islands in this river is called the James and Mary, because there, in 
1694, a royal ship by that name went to pieces. The entrance to Calcutta excels all other 
approaches in uncertainty and peril. Just before we disembarked, a lady said to me, " I am 

surprised at you. I saw you calmly writing while we 
were passing the most dangerous places in this river." 
The fact was, I did not know enough to be anxious or 
alarmed. 

Two other ships, one from China, and the other 
from England, arrived at the mouth of the river about 
the same time that we arrived, and such windings up 
the great stream, turning this way and that way without 
any seeming reason ; now by this bank, and now by the 
opposite bank, and now equidistant from the cocoanut 
palms on either side ; and then slowing up until motion 
was almost imperceptible, suggested the necessity of 
skillful pilotage. Indeed, the pilots here receive larger 
compensation than the pilots of any other harbor, and 
they soon become rich men, if they do not make a mis- 
take and go down with all hands on board. 

This Hooghly river evidently intended you shall not 
come too suddenly upon the great capital of India. You 
must wait. You must have your anticipations aroused. 
The lights must be turned on gradually. You must not 
have your nerves struck by instantaneous appearance. 
You walk from starboard to larboard, and from larboard 
to starboard, wondering from what quarter the first dome will bubble on your vision. At last 
the towers, the minarets, the pillars appear. The wharves are lined with people in color and 
dress foreign to those with which we have for a lifetime been most familiar. The great ship is 
slowly and laboriously pushed and drawn to the wharf. The gang-plank is lowered, and we 
descend into a world as new to us as though it had been on the other side of the universe. We 
had no trouble with the custom-house officials about any of our baggage except a kodak, the 

(234) 




^' 



DmOTEF ENDILRING FIRE 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



235 



small instrument for taking photographs. The officer had never seen one. He asked what it 
was, handling it very cautiously. He put it down and took it up, looking as closely as he 
dared at the opening, and then went away to consider. He, after a while, returned and said 
that this mysterious machine would have to go to the custom-house — he would not take the 
responsibility of letting it pass. He evidently took the kodak as a deadly instru- 
ment. He suspected it might be an infernal machine and had apprehension that we 
might intend with it to blow up the governmental buildings. In vain we assured 
him that innocent people in America were accustomed to use it ; that it never 
imperiled life, and we proposed to partially open it and let him see. But this proposal 




SHIPPING IN THE KIVER HOOGHI,Y. 

seemed to increase his fear, and he retreated to the door of the cabin ready to jump over- 
board in case the ship should be blown ixp by this deadly kodak. All the rest of our lug- 
gage he chalked as safe to pass, but sent a servant, whose life the custom-house officer esti- 
mated at less value than his own, to remove the kodak. On the following day, after long 
explanation and the payment of high duty for the privilege of bringing into India this 
instrument of terror, the kodak, we got possession of our property. We warn Americans 
traveling in foreign lands to keep their kodak out of sight as far as possible. It 
is wrong to shake the nervous system of public officials, and you may get yourself 
arrested where release is difficult. Our kodak has taken many things since we left 



236 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



home, but this is the only time our kodak itself was taken. We bade farewell to 
the passengers, very few in number, because this is early for travel in India. A 
most delightful acquaintance we had formed with General Lance, brigadier-general com- 
manding the fort, whose guns look down at us from the parapets. The General had 

been to Australia for 
summer recupera- 
tion ; a soldier in 
every movement, 
and a gentleman 
whose rare qualities 
entranced us from 
the time we formed 
his acquaintance on 
ship-board until the 
day we left him at 
his door in the fort 
with a group of dis- 
tinguished people 
whom he had invited 
to meet us at lunch- 
eon. His appearance 
was that of the late 
General W. T. Sher- 
man. I saw this En- 
glish officer twenty 
times a day on my 
way from Australia 
to India, and always 
said within myself: 
" Here comes Gen- 
eral Sherman." The 
English officer has 
long been in the 
army in India ; has 
been in battle ; and 
maintains high 
Christian character, 
though far away' 
from the land of his 
nativity, which can- 
not be said of all rep- 
resentatives in mili- 
tary and civil service 

when they get from home influence. I meet so many strangers in the course of my busy 
life that many go into indefiniteness of memory, but General L,ance will alwaj^s remain 
in my mind the unique, cultivated, obliging, talented, attractive and splendid Christian 
gentleman. 




BISHOP HEBER'S STATUE, CALCUTTA CATHEDRAI,. 



238 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



That evening at the Great Eastern Hotel we planned the particulars of our Indian jour- 
ney. There are many things we want to see, but there are many things we must 
see. Our first surprise is the weather. We were told again and again, especially by 
English gentlemen, that we must not go to India in September, but we must go then or 
not go at all. We thought of India in this month as a sort of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, if 

not seven times, at 
least three times 
heated, and sympa- 
thized with Shad- 
rach, Meshach and 
Abednego. We fear- 
ed being cremated 
in the first day or 
two. The fact is that 
we have often found 
it hotter in Brooklyn 
and New York than 
in Calcutta. 

First of all, we 
are clothed in white, 
and in thinnest fab- 
ric. Then, in our 
sitting and sleeping 
rooms, as well as in 
the dining-room, the 
fan, called the 
punka, reaching 
from wall to wall, is 
ever on the swing, 
pulled by some one 
outside the door. I 
wonder that all lands 
afflicted with hot 
weather have not 
adopted the punka. 
It makes the differ- 
ence between de- 
lectation and suffo- 
cation. It would be 
more expensive in 
our lands than here, 
where wages are four 




SITE OF THE BI,ACK HOLE, CAI,CUTTA. 



cents a day and a man finds himself. All that is asked for the punka swung all day and all 
night, employing four different persons, is twenty-five cents. But though American and 
English wages would make the swinging of the punka more expensive, how much nerve, 
and muscle, and brain, and health, and life it would save, and in the end it would be an 
economv. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



239 



I preached under a punka in this city, in a room where four punkas were going, and I 
kept cool. Why not have them in our American churches? City audiences then in July 
and August would be almost as large as in the month of May. The punka is not an Indian 
institution. The English introduced it. Formerly coolies with a small fan stood all night 
long over the sweltering European or American. Our winters in New York and London 
are well combated by steam pipe and furnace register, but we need the punka transported 
to battle the summers. Instead of being used only in our northern latitudes for the making 
of restaurants tolerable, it might be made a matter of national health and Christianization. 

The city has put in bronze and marble its appreciation of the men who have made 
India what it is. Good and great Bishop Heber stands in the Cathedral, sculptor's chisel 
having perpetuated a forehead on which genius was enthroned, and a face in which kindness 
took possession of every lineament. You can almost hear his gown rustle, and see his 




GROUP OF DEVOTEES IN A TEMPLE. 

fingers tremble with exquisite hymnology, as he writes " From Greenland's icy mountains ; 
From India's coral strand." But the men of statesmanship and war confront you in the 
open spaces of the city : Sir John Lawrence and General Outram, of Lucknow fame, reining 
in a charger, and Sir William Peel, of the Naval Brigade, and Lord Hardinge, and Earl of 
Mayo. 

But the men of the past do not monopolize the attention of this city. I have no doubt 
there are persons walking up and down these streets every day who have as noble charac- 
teristics as belong to any of those departed heroes on the parks wrapped in robes of stone, 
or mounted on horses of stone, or looking off with eyes of stone. The Calcutta of to-day 
is greater than the Calcutta of the past. A great city of nearly 900,000 inhabitants. It 
excites the wonder of ever>' visitor. Its architecture, its gardens, its humane intitutions, its 
thronged streets, its equipages moving out in the cool of the day, its colleges, its university, 



240 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



its esplanade, its magnificent hospitals, its Christian missionaries are a fascination. The 
Viceroy at this season is in the Himalayas, and much of the life of the city is away, but 
the place is merry and wide-awake. Polo games, football, fine oarsmanship, and groups 
bound on recreation are here and now to be seen by those who enjoy them, while religious 
work is in full blast and ready to absorb the attention of those who are hoping for the 
redemption of India. Nothing can hide the fact that idolatry and superstition are yet 
dominant in Calcutta. Brahma, and Vishnu, and Siva have more worshipers than the God 
of heaven. 

For the first time I had the opportunity of talking with a fakir, or a man who 
has renounced the world and lives on alms. He sat under a rough covering on a 




BURMESE CART. 

platform of brick. He was covered with the ashes of the dead, and was at the time 
I saw him rubbing more of those ashes upon his arms and legs. He understood and spoke 
English. I said to him : " How long have you been seated here?" He replied : " Fifteen 
years." " Have these idols which I see any power of themselves to help or destroy ? " He 
said : " No ; they only represent God. There is but one God." 

Question: "When people die where do they go to?" 

Answer : " That depends upon what they have been doing. If they have been doing 
good, to heaven ; if they have been doing evil, to hell." 

Question : " But do you not believe in the transmigration of souls, and that after death 
we go into birds or animals of some sort? " 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



241 



Answer: ''Yes; the last creature a man is thinking of while dj'ing is the one into 
which he will go. If he is thinking of a bird he will go into a bird, and if he is thinking 
of a cow he will go into a cow." 

Question : " I thought you said that at death the soul goes to heaven or hell ? " 

Answer: " He goes there by a gradual process. It may take him years and years." 

Question : " Can any one become a Hindoo ? Could I become a Hindoo? " 

Answer: "Yes; you could." 

Question : " How could I become a Hindoo ? " 

Answer : "By doing as the Hindoos do."' 

But as I looked upon the poor, filthy wretch, bedaubing himself with the ashes of the 
dead, I thought the last thing on earth I would want to become would be a Hindoo. 




HINDU DEVOTEES— CARS OF JUGGERNAUT. 

I had to-day the pleasure of visiting the Duff College and of addressing some three 
hundred or four hundred young students. All of them save four or five were Hindoos, Parsees 
or Mohammedans. They understood English, and it was a pleasure to address an audience so 
alert and inquisitive. Dr. DuiF raised the money for this college in his own land, and 
pictures and statuettes in different rooms of the college bring to mind that wonderful 
personage. How well I remember him on the platform of Broadway Tabernacle, New York, 
pleading the cause of India at the anniversary of the American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions. His vehemence was something terrific. His manner was a defiance of all 
elocutionary laws. How he wept, and thundered, and satirized, and prayed, and threatened, 
and enraptured that great assemblage ! In Dr. Duff's day this college at Calcutta was entirely 
controlled by the evangelical spirit. I hope it is so now, for if these hundreds of young 
men are educated only as to the head, and go forth with a developed acumen and 
i5 



242 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



augmented power, not to commend Christ, but to preach Hindooism and Mohammedanism, 
the advantage to the world would be infinitesmal. 

Calcutta is the headquarters of Bishop Thoburn's work, and what Bishop Heber did in 
his day Bishop Thoburn is now doing for the gospelization of India. I saw some of his 
schools and preached to many of his people, and got facts in regard to what is being done 
here and throughout India by consecrated men and women, enough to thrill all Christendom 
with gladness. About twenty-five thousand converts in India every year under the Metho- 
dist missions, and about twenty-five thousand converts under the Baptist missions, and at 
least seventy-five thousand converts under all the missions every year. But more than that, 
Christianity is undermining heathenism, and not a city, or town, or neighborhood of India 
but directly or indirectly feels the influence, and the day speeds on when Hindooism will go 
down with a crash. There are whole villages which have given up their gods, and where 
not an idol is left. The serfdom of womanhood is being loosened, and the iron grip of caste 
is being relaxed. Human sacrifices have ceased, and the last spark of the last funeral pyre 
has been extinguished, and the wheel of the Juggernaut has ceased to crush. All India 
will be taken for Christ. If any one has any disheartenments let him keep them as his 
own private property — he is welcome to all of them. But if any man has any encourage- 
ments to utter, let him utter them. What we want is less croaking owls of the night, and 
more morning larks with spread wing, ready to meet the advancing day. Fold up now 
Naomi and Windham, and give us Ariel, or Mt. Pisgah, or Coronation ! 

Glad am I that the last thing I did in Calcutta was to preach that gospel which is to 
save India, and to save the world. With what interest I looked over the pulpit into the 
dark faces of these natives, and saw them illumined with heavenly anticipation. While 
yet they were seated I took mj" departure for a railroad train. A swift carriage brought 
me to the station not more than half a minute before starting. I came nearer to missing 
the train than I hope any one of us will come to missing heaven. 




CARVED IMAGES OF DAGON. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

BURNING OF THE DEAD. 

now I will take you to the very headquarters of heathendoin, to the very capital 
of Hindooisra ; for what Mecca is to the Mohammedan, and what Jerusalem is 
to the Christian, Benares, India, is to the Hindoo. We arrived there in the 
evening, and the next morning we started out early, among other things to see 
the burning of the dead. We saw it, cremation, not as many good people in America and 
England are now advocating it, namely, the burning of the dead in clean, and orderly, and 
refined crematory, the hot furnace soon reducing the human form to a powder to be carefully 
preserved in an urn ; but cremation as the Hindoos practice it. We got into a boat and 
were rowed down the river Ganges until we came opposite to where five dead bodies lay, 
four of them women wrapped in red garments, and a man wrapped in white. Our boat fast- 
ened, we waited and watched. High piles of wood were on the bank, and this wood is care- 
fully weighed on large scales, according as the friends of the deceased can afford to pay for 
it. In many cases only a few sticks can be afforded, and the dead body is burned only a 
little, and then thrown into the Ganges. But where the relatives of the deceased are well- 
to-do, an abundance of wood in pieces four or five feet long is purchased. Two or three 
layers of sticks are then put on the ground to receive the dead form. Small pieces of san- 
dal-wood are inserted to produce fragrance. The deceased is lifted from the resting-place and 
put upon this wood. Then the cover is removed from the face of the corpse and it is bathed 
with the water of the Ganges. Then several more layers of wood are put upon the body, 
and other sticks are placed on both sides of it, but the head and feet are left exposed. 
Then a quantity of grease sufficient to make everything inflammable is put on the wood, 
and into the mouth of the dead. Then one of the richest men in Benares, his fortune 
made in this way, furnishes the fire, and, after the priest has mumbled a few words, the 
eldest son walks three times around the sacred pile, and then applies the torch, and the fire 
blazes up, and in a short time the body has become the ashes which the relatives throw into 
the Ganges. 

We saw floating past us on the Ganges the body of a child which had been only partly 
burned, because the parents could not afford enough wood. While we watched the floating 
form of the child a crow alighted upon it. In the mean time hundreds of Hindoos were 
bathing in the river, dipping their heads, filling their mouths, supplying their brass cups, 
muttering words of so-called prayer. Such a mingling of superstition, and loathsomeness, 
and inhumanity I had never before seen. The Ganges is to the Hindoo the best river of all 
the earth, but to me it is the vilest stream that ever rolled its stench in horror to the sea. I 
looked all along the banks for the mourners for the dead. I saw in two of the cities nine 
cremations, but in no case a sad look or a tear. I said to friends : " How is this ? Have 
the living no grief for the dead ? " I found that the women do not come forth on such 
occasions, but that does not account for the absence of all signs of grief. There is another 
reason more potent. Men do not see the faces of their wives until after marriage. They 
take them on recommendation. Marriages thus formed, of course, have not much affection 

{243) 



244 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



in them. Women are married at seven and ten years of age, and are grandmothers at 
thirty. Snch unwisely-formed family associations do not imply much ardor of love. The 
family so poorly put together — who wonders that it is easilj^ taken apart ? And so I account 
for the absence of all signs of grief at the cremation of the Hindoos. 

Benares is the capital of Hindooism and Buddhism, but Hindooism has trampled out 
Buddhism, the hoof of the one monster on the grizzly neck of the other monster. It is also 
the capital of filth, and the capital of malodors, and the capital of indecency. The Hin- 
doos say they have 300,000,000 gods. Benares being the headquarters of these deities, you 
will not be surprised to find that the making of gods is a profitable business. Here there 




CORPSE IN GANGES AND CREMATION ON THE BANK. 

are carpenters making wooden gods, and brass workers making brass gods, and sculptors 
making stone gods, and potters making clay gods. I cannot think of the abominations 
practiced here without a recoil of stomach and a need of cologne. Although much is said 
about the carvings on the temples of this city, everything is so vile that there is not much 
room left for the aesthetic. The devotees enter the temples nineteen-twentieths unclothed, 
and depart begging. All that Hindooism can do for a man or woman it does here. Not- 
withstanding all that may have been said in its favor at the Parliament of Religions in 
Chicago, it makes man a brute, and woman the lowest type of slave. I would rather be a 
horse or a cow or a dog in India than be a woman. The greatest disaster that can happen 
to a Hindoo is that he was born at all. 



246 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



Benares is imposing in the distance as yoti look at it from the other side of the Ganges, 
The forty-seven ghats, or flights of stone steps, reaching from the water's edge to the build- 
ings high up on the banks, mark a place for the ascent and descent of the sublimities. The 
eye is lost in the bewilderment of tombs, shrines, minarets, palaces and temples. It is the 
glorification of steps, the triumph of stairways. But looked at close by, the temples,, 
though large and expensive, are anything but attractive. The seeming gold in many cases 
turns out to be brass. The pi'ecious stones in the wall turn out to be paint. The marble is 
stucco. The slippery and disgusting steps lead you to images of horrible visage, and the 
flowers put upon the altar have their fragrance submerged by that which is the opposite of 
aromatics. 

After you have seen the ghats, the two great things in Benares that you must see are the 




PREPARING FOR THE IMMOLATION OF A HINDOO WIDOW. 

Golden and Monkey Temples. About the vast Golden Temple there is not as much gold 
as would make an English sovereign. The air itself is asphyxiated. Here we see men 
making gods out of mud and then putting their hands together in worship of that which 
themselves have made. Sacred cows walk up and down the temple. Here stood a Fakir 
with a right arm uplifted, and for so long a time that he could not take it down, and the 
nails of the hand had grown until the}' looked like serpents winding in and around the palm. 
The god of the Golden Temple is Siva, or the poison god. Devils wait upon him. He 
is the god of war, of famine, of pestilence. He is the destroyer. He has around his neck 
a string of skulls. Before him bow men whose hair never knew a comb. Thej' eat carrion 
and that which is worse. Bells and drums here set up a racket. Pilgrims come from 



248 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



hundreds of miles away, spending their last piece of money and exhausting their last atom of 
strength in order to reach this Golden Temple, glad to die in or near it, and have the ashes 
of their bodies thrown into the Ganges. 

We took a carriage and went still further on to see the Monkey Temple, so-called 
because in and around the building monkeys abound and are kept as sacred. All evolution- 
ists should visit this temple devoted to the family from which their ancestors came. These 
monkeys chatter, and wink, and climb, and look wise, and look silly, and have full posses- 
sion of the place. We were asked at the entrance of the Monkey Temple to take off our 
shoes because of the sacredness of the place, but a small contribution placed in the hands of 

an attendant resulted in a 
permission to enter with 
our shoes on. As the 
Golden Temple is dedi- 
cated to Siva, the poison 
god, this Monkey Temple 
is dedicated to Siva's wife, 
a deitess, that must be 
propitiated, or she will 
disease, and blast, and de- 
stroy. For centuries this 
spit-fire has been wor- 
shiped. She is the god- 
dess of scold, and slap, and 
termagancy. She is sup- 
posed to be a supernatural 
Xantippe ; hence to her 
are brought flowers and 
rice, and here and there 
the flowers are spattered 
with the blood of goats 
slain in sacrifice. 

As we walk to-day 
through this Monkey 
Temple we must not hit, 
or tease, or hurt one of 
them. Two Englishmen 
years ago lost their lives 
by the maltreatment of a 
monkey. Passing along one of these Indian streets, a monkey did not soon enough get out 
of the way, and one of the Englishmen struck it with his cane. Immediately the people 
and the priests gathered around these strangers, and the public wrath increased until the two 
Englishmen were pounded to death for having struck a monke)^ No land in all the world 
so reveres the monkey as India, as no other land has a temple called after it. One of the 
Rajahs of India spent 100,000 rupees in the marriage of two monkeys. A nuptial proces- 
sion was formed, in which moved camels, elephants, tigers, cattle, and palanquins of richly- 
dressed people. Bands of music sounded the wedding march. Dancing parties kept the 
night sleepless. It was twelve days before the monkey and monkeyess were free from their 




BRAHMA AS THE FOUR-FACED BUDDHA. 





(249J 



250 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

round of gay attentions. In no place but India could such a carnival have occurred. Bui 
after all, while we cannot approve of the Monkey Temple, the monke}' is sacred to hilarity. 
I defy any one to watch a monkey one minute without laughter. Why was this creature 
made ? For the world's amusement. The mission of some animals is left doubtful and we 
cannot see the use of this or that quadruped, or this or that insect, but the mission of the 
ape is certain ; all around the earth it entertains. Whether seated at the top of this temple 
in India, or cutting up its antics on the top of a hand-organ, it stirs the sense of the ludi- 
crous ; tickles the diaphragm into cachinnation ; topples gravity into play, and accomplishes 
that for which it was created. The eagle, and the lion, and the gazelle, and the robin no 
more certainly have their mission than has the monkey. But it implies a low form of 
Hindooism when this embodied mimicry of the human race is lifted into worship. 

There are, however, alleviations for Benares. I attended worship in one of the Christian 
missions. The sermon, though delivered in Hindoostanee, of which I could not understand 
a word, thrilled me with its earnestness and tenderness of tone, especially when the 
missionary told me at the close of the service that he recently baptized a man who was 
converted through reading one of my sermons among the hills of India. The songs of the 
two Christian assemblages I visited in this city, although the tunes were new, and the senti- 
ments not translated, were uplifting and inspiring to the last degree. There was also a 
school of 600 native girls, an institution established by a Rajah of generosity and wealth, 
a graduate of Madras University. But more than all, the missionaries are busy, some of 
them preaching on the ghats, some of them in churches, in chapels, and bazaars. The 
London Missionary Society has here its college for young men, and its schools for children, 
and its houses of worship for all. The Church Missionary Society' has its eight schools, 
all filled with learners. The evangelizing work of the Wesleyans and the Baptists are felt 
in all parts of Benares. In its mightiest stronghold Hindooism is being assaulted. 

And now as to the industrious malignment of missionaries : It has been said by some 
travelers after their return to America or England that the missionaries are leading a life 
full of indolence and luxury. That is a falsehood that I would say is as high as heaven 
if it did not go down in the opposite direction. When strangers come into these tropical 
climates, the missionaries do their best to entertain them, making sacrifices for that purpose. 
In the cit}' of Benares a missionary told me that a gentleman coming from England into 
one of the mission stations of India, the missionaries banded together to entertain him. 
Among other things, they had a ham boiled, prepared and beautifully decorated, and the 
same ham was passed around from house to house as this stranger appeared, and in other 
respects a conspiracy of kindness was effected. The visitor went home to England and wrote 
and spoke of the luxury in which the missionaries of India were living. Americans and 
Englishmen come to these tropical regions and find a missionary living under palms and 
with different styles of fruits on his table, and forget that palms are here as cheap as hickory 
or pine in America, and rich fruits as cheap as plain apples. They find here missionaries sleep- 
ing under punkas, these fans swung day and night by coolies, and forget that four cents a day is 
good wages here, and the man finds himself Four cents a day for a coachman ; a missionarv 
can afford to ride. There have been missionaries who have come to these hot climates resolving 
to live as the natives live, and one or two years have finished their work, their chief use on 
missionary ground being that of furnishing for a large funeral the chief object of interest. 
So far from living in idleness, no men on earth work so hard as the missionaries in the 
foreign field. Against fearfiil odds, and with three millions of Christians opposed to two 
hundred and fifty millions of Hindoos, Mohammedans and other false religions, these 




GOSAIN TEMPLE, BENARES. 



(251) 



.252 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



missionaries are trying to take India for God. L,et the good people of America, and Eng- 
land, and Scotland, and of all Christendom add ninety-nine and three-quarters per cent to 
their appreciation of the fidelity and consecration of foreign missionaries. Far away from 
home, in an exhausting climate, and compelled to send their children to England, Scotland 
or America so as to escape the corrupt conversation and behavior of the natives, these men 
and women of God toil on until they drop into their graves. But they will get their chief 
appreciation when their work is over and the day is won, as it will be won. No place in 
heaven will be too good for them. Some of the ministers at home who live on salaries of 
$4000 to $5000 a year, preaching the gospel of Him who had not where to lay His head, 
will enter heaven and be welcomed, and while looking for a place to sit down, they will be 
told : " Yonder in that lower line of thrones you will take your places. Not on the thrones 
nearest the King ; they are reserved for the missionaries ! " 




THE KING OF NEPAUI, AND COMMANDING GENERAI.S. 



SI 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

GREAT SNAKES. 

HAT a suggestive word is the word " snakes ! " You cannot pronounce it without 
two hisses. Well, the snake question in India is an. absorbing question. In 
Bengal, i. e., the region approximate to Calcutta, in 1892 there were 9190 
deaths caused by the bite of serpents, and last year 10,747 deaths. On an 
average, 20,000 people die of snake-bite in India every year. No wonder the government 
has offered a reward for the killing of snakes, and 117,120 have been slain! 

In a former chapter I stated that the natural enemy of the serpent was the mongoose, 
the latter living on herbs that are an antidote to the poison, but since then I have seen a 
contest between a cobra and a mongoose, and have from my own observation to correct 
some things that were told me about them. 

M 



They were in the possession of a snake- 
charmer. The mongoose is about the 
color and size of our American squirrel, 
and one would think it unable to cope 
with the cobra, but the quadruped can 
master the reptile. As the snake-charmer 
put forth the cobra and the mongoose, 
they seemed unwilling to touch each 
other, the cobra avoiding the mongoose 
and the mongoose avoiding the cobra. 
But the owner of the two was determined 
to bring on battle, and he succeeded. The 
mongoose coming too near the cobra, it 
lifted its head, widened it into the shape 
of a hood and struck its fangs at the 
mongoose. The mongoose bit back at the 
assailant, and the cobra gave a second 
stroke. Then the ire of the mongoose 
was up, and it went furiously at the reptile. 
They seized each other in the fray, in which it was evident one or both must die. The 
mongoose took the cobra by the brain and held on with a prolonged bite, accompanied by 
the wagging of its head as if in emphasis of rage, and the cobra wound its thick folds about 
the mongoose, round and round, until the quadruped was hidden beneath the ringlets of the 
serpent. The teeth of the quadruped sank into the brain of the reptile, and the folds of 
the snake coiled about the neck and body of the mongoose. Matters had gone so far there 
could be no truce, no let-up, no halting. Tighter and tighter the coil of the one ; deeper 
and deeper the teeth of the other. Now it would seem that the cobra would gain the day, 
and now the mongoose. I know not which of the contestants enlisted the sympathies of the 
other by-standers, but my sympathies were with the mongoose. The result could not be 

(253) 




—^^.y 



MONGOOSE. 



254 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



much longer postponed. One more terrible writhing and struggle and all was still. Then 
out from the foam, and blood, and dust, and fury of the fray walked the mongoose, the 
cobra giving no sign. It had given its last hiss. It had bitten the last child. It had lifted 
its horrid crest for the last time. 

This reptilian curse is everywhere in India. Taking a walk in one of the cities, nine 
o'clock in the evening, one of these creatures wriggled across the pavement. The next 

morning, walking out, a cobra pre- 
sented itself for the assault of my 
friends. A missionary here told me 
that he saw a large cobra which 
had been caged and petted by a 
native man and woman, and they 
let it crawl away, and as it went 
into a hole the man and woman 
said, " Good cobra ; dear cobra ; 
salaam ; salaam." 

We were in several places 
where on rising in the morning I 
was careful to examine my shoes to 
see if they were occupied by a 
snake, for they love to coil up in 
shoes. Occasionally they crawl 
into the bed, and more than once I 
was told not to let the shawl on 
the bed cover hang to the floor, for 
sometimes snakes ascended to co- 
partnership in slumber. When I 
objected to two lizards in the room 
they were pronounced of no im- 
portance, and I could get no one 
to expel them. Every native and 
every European has some nice 
snake story with which he is ready 
to entertain you. That crawling 
creature, for which we have such 
an aversion, excites no such feel- 
ings in the natives of India. One 
of the cities is named after it — 
Nagmore, or The City of the 
Snake. Temples have been dedi- 
cated to it. The shadow of the 
reptile falling on any one is considered a sure promise of good luck. A day in July is set 
apart for special homage to it. Its worshipers draw a serpentine figure on a house and 
then clasp the hands in prayer before it. On that especial Sabbath of the year they sit 
down by caves, or near holes in the earth, waiting for reptiles to appear, and if they appear 
fruits are offered. Snakedom is a strong dominion in India. The bite of the cobra is 
never cured. Nitrate of silver, and arsenic, and ammonia, and snake-stone have been 




FESTIVAL OF THE SERPENTS. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



255 



used in vain. The patient must die. It is onl)' a matter of a few hours. The snake- 
charmers who play with these creatures have, I imagine, in most cases previously extracted 
the fangs. 

A Hindoo boy, mentioned by the daughter of Sir Bartle Frere, could with his voice 
charm these creatures. They would come out of the fields, and from among the rocks, and 
play around him and do as he commanded. So great was the power of this young charmer 
that people came from far and near to 
see him, and many to worship him. 
At last he sported with these products 
of the jungle once too often. Under 
some provocation one of them struck 
him and he died. 

It was entertaining to see a lad in 
jugglery with snakes in front of our 
hotel. He would take a blanket and 
shake it out in our presence, and no 
snake was in sight. Afterwards he 
would wrap the blanket around him 
and then drop it, and around his neck 
was coiled a long reptile. He would 
blow a noisy musical instrument, and 
all the snakes in the basket would lift 
up their heads and the snake on the 
ground would begin to dance. Did 
ever orchestra entertain such an audi- 
ence ? These snakes prefer cool places 
and a gentleman told me that one 
morning in one of these large cities 
he found a cobra peacefully and hap- 
pily resting itself in his bath-room. 
When property is deeded it is quite 
usual to mention the snakes as deeded 
with it. 

Walking through a public garden 
a gentleman said to me : " Be a little 
careful and watch where you tread ; 
for there are a good many snakes in 
this region." Returning from the walk 
to our carriage we found a monstrous 
snake close by. It was dead. Some 
young men had killed it and would, as a joke, have put it in our carriage, but the driver 
said he had protested. 

Passsing along a street my son said : " Did you notice what was on the side of you ? " 
I said, " No." Then he drew my attention to the fact that we had passed near several large 
baskets of cobras — of course, under the care of their keepers. Bishop Heber, known as a 
good authority in missionary hymnology, is not so well known as an authority on great 
snakes, but in a chapter of his diary written on the Ganges, he gives this experience : 




INDIAN CONJURING TRICK. 



256 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



" This morning as I was at breakfast the alarm was given of a great snake in the after 
cabin, which had found its way into a basket containing two caps, presents for mj' wife and 
myself from Decca. The reptile was immediately and without examination pronounced to 
be a cobra, and caused great alarm among my servants. However, on dislodging it from its 
retreat, it proved to be only a water-snake. It appeared to have been coiled up very neatly 
around the fur of a cap, and though its bite would not have 
been venomous, it certainly would have inflicted a severe 
wound on anybody who had incautiously opened the basket. 
I had once or twice fancied I heard a gentle hissing, but 
the idea of a snake in the boat seemed so impossible that 
I attributed the noise to different causes, or to iancv. Much 
wonder was expressed at finding it in such a place, but as I 
have seen one of the same kind climb a tree, it is probable 
that it had ascended one of the ropes by which the boat is 
moored, and so got among us. I have heard of one English 
lady at Patna who once lay a whole night with a cobra under 
her pillow. She repeatedly thought during the night that 
something moved, and in the morning when she snatched 
the pillow away she found the thick, black throat, the square 
head and green, diamond-like eye advanced within two inches 
of her neck. The snake, fortunately, was without malice. 
His hood was uniuflated, and he was merely enjoying the 
warmth of his nest. But, alas for her if she had during the 
night pressed the reptile a little too roughly ! " 

So wrote the good Bishop. I wish he had gone on and 
given us his opinion why the snake was created at all. It 
may be that, before its Apollyonic possession, its streaks, and 
spots, and variegation of color may have been attractive and 
it was a study of the beautiful. It may be that the world 
needed the reptile as a perpetual symbol of the sly and the 
poisonous. It may be that the human race required admoni- 
tion of the fact that under the loveliest and sweetest things 
lurks peril. Perhaps it was to make one more addition to the 
world of mystery, the realm of the unknown always vaster 
than the realm of the known. After we have carried the 
torch of exploration into some cathedral of myster}' and are 
congratulating ourselves that we have found out everything, 
we look around and discover that for the one open door we 
have entered there are twenty doors yet unopened. Larger 
than all the combined libraries of what the world knows 
would be the library of what the world does not know. 
Come now, thou wise-acre ! Explain the cobra di capello. 
As for myself, I adjourn the attempt at explanation. What a dull place heaven would be 
if we knew everything here ! Universal knowledge now would stupefy the eternities. 

In our northern latitudes, where we so seldom see the sly and venomous reptile, we can 
hardly appreciate why such prominence is given in Oriental literature, and especially in the 
Holy Scriptures, to metaphors connected with the reptile. The sufferings of Christ and His 




HINDOO JUGGLER. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



257 







^-'' 



THE FAKIR OF THE IMMOVABLE FOOT. 



final victoty are set forth by a serpentine figure, where it is said of the descendant of woman 
and the descendant of the serpent, "It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his 

heel." The painful laceration of the foot by a serpent fang 
suggestive of the sorrows of Christ, and the stamping on a 
snake's head until it is slain suggestive of our Lord's triumph : 
" It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." 

In Paradisaical times the Devil took the form of a 
snake, and there is the satanic look in every reptile that I 
have ever seen, whether in India or the United States. Solo- 
mon says the work of rum is serpentine, adderine ; but people 
do not realize that he is describing delirium tremens when 
he says, " It biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an 
adder." When people have 
delirium tremens they alway 
see snakes. David, speaking 
of the influence of bad men, 
says : " Their poison is like 
the poison of serpents." The 
strong similarity of the eel 
and the serpent is mentioned in the Bible, when speaking 
of a father and his son, it says : " If he ask meat will he 
give him a serpent?" Christ said to the hypocritical Phari- 
sees : " Ye generation of 
vipers ! " 

But the snake will 
have to leave India, and 
leave the world. If St. 
Patrick drove these crea- 
tures out of Ireland, as 
^ many suppose, he is worthy 
of all the St. Patrick din- 
ners spread in his memorj'. 
Genesis, the first book in 
the Bible, describes the 
entrance of the serpent ; 

Revelation, the last book of the Bible, describes its extirpa- 
tion, where St. John speaks of the destruction of " that old 
serpent, called the Devil." That I take both literally and 
figurativel}'. While we congratulate ourselves that our 
Christian lands are comparatively free from reptiles, there 
are as many cobras in England and America as in India. 
They crawl through libraries and sting the soul of the 
young man who opens a bad book. The}' crawl through 
parlors and hiss in the gossiping conversation. They 
wind in and out among the decanters, and ale pitchers, and 
demijohns of those who are becoming the victims of intoxicants. They slyly put their 
fangs out from between the lids of the infidel essay. They coil around the legs of the 




S&- 



'^ 



J 






FAKIR HANGING TO 



FAKIR OF THE LONG NAILS. 

(The growth of the nails shows how long the 

hand has been held in this one position.) 



258 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



gaming-table. They lift their heads among the orange blossoms of unwise marriages. 
They crawl under the sea with the length of a submarine cable. They arch the 
heavens with international malevolence. They wind the throat of every cannon. They 
snuggle in the hilt of every sword. They are in the black links of every chain. 
Cobras ! Away with them ! The gospel balm is the only antidote to the poison. The 
thunders of the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the only things that can destroy 
them. 




HINDOO STONE CARVERS. 




CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE TRAGEDY OF LUCKNOW. 

'S our train glided into the dimly-lighted station, I asked the guard, "Is this 
IvUcknow?" and he answered, " Lucknow," at the pronunciation of which 
proper name emotions rushed through body, mind and soul. 

The word is a synonym of suffering, of cruelty, of heroism, of horror 
such as, is suggested by hardly any other word. We have for thirty-five years been reading 
of the agonies there endured and the daring deeds there witnessed. It was my great desire 
to have some one who had witnessed the scenes transacted in Ivucknow in 1857 conduct us 
over the place. We found just the man. He was a young soldier at the time the greatest 
mutiny of the ages broke out, and he was put with others inside of the Residency, which 
was a cluster of buildings making a fortress in which the representatives of the English 
Government lived, and which was to be the scene of an endurance and a bombardment, the 
story of which, poetry and painting and history, and secular and sacred eloquence have 
been trying to depict. Our escort not only had a good memory of what had happened, but 
had talent enough to rehearse the tragedy. 

In the early part of 1857 all over India the natives were ready to break out in rebellion 
against all foreigners, and especially against the civil and military representatives of the 
English Government. 

A half dozen causes are mentioned for the feeling of discontent and insurrection that 
was evidenced throughout India. The most of these causes were mere pretexts. Greased 
cartridges were no doubt an exasperation. The grease ordered by the English Government 
to be used on these cartridges was taken from cows or pigs, and grease to the Hindoos is 
unclean, and to bite these cartridges at the loading of the guns would be an offence to the 
Hindoos' religion. The leaders of the Hindoos said that these greased cartridges were only 
part of an attempt by the English Government to make the natives give up their religion ; 
hence unbounded indignation was aroused. 

Another cause of the mutiny was that another large province of India had been 
annexed to the British Empire, and thousands of officials in the employ of the king of that 
province were thrown out of position, and they were all ready for trouble-making. 

Another cause was said to be the bad government exercised by some English officials 
in India. 

The simple fact was that the natives of India were a conquered race, and the English 
were the conquerors. For one hundred years the British sceptre waved over India, and the 
Indians wanted to break that sceptre. There never had been any love or sympathy between 
the natives of India and the Europeans ; there is none now. 

Before the time of the great mutiny the English Governrnent risked much power in 
the hands of the natives. Too many of them manned the forts. Too many of them were 
in governmental employ. And now the time had come for a wide outbreak. The natives 
had persuaded themselves that they could send the English Government flying, and to 
accomplish it, dagger, and sword, and firearms, and mutilation, and slaughter must do their 
worst. 

(259) 



26o 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



It was evident in Lucknow that the natives were about to rise and put to death all the 
Europeans they could lay their hands on, and into the Residency the Christian population 
of Lucknow hastened for defence from the tigers in human form which were growling for 
their victims. The occupants of the Residency, or fort, were military and non-combatants, 
men, women and children, in number about 1692. I suggest in one sentence some of the 
chief woes to which they were subjected, when I say that these people were in the Residency 
five months without a single change of clothing ; some of the time the heat at 120 and 130 
degrees ; the place black with flies, and all asquirm.with vermin ; firing of the enemy upon 
them ceasing neither day nor night ; the hospital crowded with the dying ; smallpox, scurvy, 
cholera, adding their work to that of shot and shell ; women brought up in all comfort and 
never having known want, crowded and sacrificed in a cellar where nine children were born ; 




LIEUTENANTS HAVELOCK AND FUSELIEN. 

less and less food ; no water except that which was brought from a well imder the enemy's 
fire, so that the water obtained was at the price of blood ; the stench of the dead horses added 
to the eflfluvia of corpses, and all the sufferers waiting for the moment when the army 
of 60,000 shrieking Hindoo devils should break in upon the garrison of the Residenc}' ; 
now redxiced by wounds and sickness and death to 976 men, women and children. 

" Call me early," I said, " to-morrow morning, and let us be at the Residency before 
the sun becomes too hot." At seven o'clock in the morning we left our hotel in Lucknow, 
and I said to our obliging, gentlemanly escort, " Please take us along the road by which Have- 
lock and Outran! came to the relief of the Residency." That was the way we went. There 
was a solemn stillness as we approached the gate of the Residency. Battered and torn is 
the masonry of the entrance. Signature of shot, and punctuation of cannon ball, all up 




rI';li1'',f di- i.rcKxiiw. 



^26.) 



262 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



and down and everywhere. " Here to the left," said our escort, " are the remains of a 
building, the first floor of which in other days had been used as a banqueting hall, but then 
was used as a hospital. At this part the amputations took place, and all such patients died. 
The heat was so great and the food so insufficient that the poor fellows could not recover 
from the loss of blood ; they all died. Amputations were performed without chloroform. 
All the ansesthetics were exhausted. A fracture that in other climates and under other circum- 
stances would have come to easy convalescence, here proved fatal. Yonder was Dr. Fayrer's 
house, who was surgeon of the place, and is now Queen Victoria's doctor. This upper 
room was the officers' room, and there Sir Henry Lawrence, our dear commander, was 
wounded. While he sat there a shell struck the room, and some one suggested that he had 




GENERAI, HAVEI,OCK'S GREETING BY THE CHRISTIANS WHOM HE SAVED. 

better leave the room, but he smiled and said, ' Lightning never strikes twice in the same 
place.' Hardly had he said this when another shell tore off his thigh, and he was carried 
dying into Dr. Fayrer's house on the other side of the road. Sir Henry Lawrence had been 
in poor health for a long time before the mutiny. He had been in the Indian service for 
years, and he had started for England to recover his health, but getting as far as Bombay, 
the English Government requested him to remain at least a while, for he could not be 
spared in such dangerous times. He came here to Lucknow, and foreseeing the siege of 
this Residency had filled many of the rooms with grain, without which the Residency 
would have been obliged to surrender. There were also taken by him into this Residency 
rice, and sugar, and charcoal, and fodder for the oxen, and hay for the horses. But now, 
at the time when all the people were looking to him for wisdom and courage. Sir Henry is 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



263 




dying." Our escort describes the scene, unique, tender, beautiful and overpowering, and 
while I stood on the very spot where the sighs and groans of the besieged, and lacerated, 
and broken-hearted met the whiz of bullets, and the demoniac hiss of bursting shell, and 
the roar of batteries, my escort gave me the particulars. 

" As soon as Sir Henry was told that he had not many hours to live he asked the 
chaplain to administer to him 
the holy communion. He felt 
particularly anxious for the 
safety of the women in the 
Residency who, at any moment, 
might be subjected to the sav- 
ages who howled around the 
Residency, their breaking in 
only a matter of time, unless 
reinforcements should come. 
He would frequently say to 
those who surrounded his death 
couch, ' Save the ladies. God 
help the poor women and chil- 
dren ! ' He gave directions for 
the desperate defence of the 
place. He asked forgiveness 
of all those whom he might 
unintentionally have neglected 
or offended. He left a message 
for all his friends. He forgot 
not to give direction for the 
care of his favorite horse. He 
charged the officers, saying, 
* By no means svtrrender. Make 
no treaty or compromise with 
the desperadoes. Die fighting.' 
He took charge of the asylum 
he had established for the 
children of soldiers. He gave 







directions for his burial, say- 
ing, ' No nonsense, no fuss. 
Let me be buried with the 
men.' He dictated his own the signatures of the four great living heroes op lucknow. 

eoitanh which I read above ^ obtained these signatures at the table of General Sir Henry M. Havelock, in the 
■t^ -t^ ' United Service Club, London, where he had invited these Generals to meet rae. 

his tomb . ' Here lies Henry 

Lawrence, who tried to do his duty. May the Lord have mercy on his soul.' He said, ' I 
would like to have a passage of Scripture added to the words on my grave, such as : "To 
the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him " — 
isn't it from Daniel ? ' So as brave a man as England or India ever saw expired. The 
soldiers lifted the cover from his face and kissed him before they carried him out. The 
chaplain offered a prayer. Then they removed the great hero amid the rattling hail of the 



264 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



guns and put him down among other soldiers buried at the same time. " All of which I 
state for the benefit of those who would have us believe that the Christian religion is fit 
only for women in the eighties and children under seven. There was glory enough in that 
departure to halo Christendom. 

"There," said our escort, "'Bob the Nailer' did the work." "Who was 'Bob the 
Nailer? ' " " Oh, he was the African who sat at that point, and when anyone of our men 
ventured across the road he would drop him by a rifle ball. Bob was a sure marksman. 
The only way to get across the road for water from the well was to wait until his gun flashed 
and then instantly cross before he had time to load. The only way we could get rid of him 
was by digging a mine under the house where he was hidden. When the house was blown 
up ' Bob the Nailer' went with it." I said to him, " Had you made up your minds what 




PRAYERS BY THE WAYSIDE. 

you and the other sufferers would do in case the fiends actually broke in ? " " Oh, yes," 
said m}^ escort, " we had it all planned, for the probability was every hour for nearly five 
months that they would break in. You must remember it was 1600 against 60,000, and for 
the latter part of the time it was 900 against 60,000, and the Residency and the earthworks 
around it were not put up for such an attack. It was only from the mercy of God 
that we were not massacred soon after the besiegement. We were resolved not to allow 
ourselves to get into the hands of those desperadoes. You miist remember that we and all the 
women had heard of the butchery at Cawnpore, and we knew what defeat meant. If unable 
to hold out any longer we would have blown ourselves up, and all gone out of life together." 
" Show me," I said, " the rooms where the women and children staid during those 
awful months." Then we crossed over and went down into the cellar of the Residency. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



265 



With a shudder of horror indescribable I entered the cellars where 622 women and children 
had been crowded until the whole floor was full. I know the exact number, for I counted 
their names on the roll. As one of the ladies wrote in her diary — speaking of these women, 
she said : "Thej' lay upon the floor fitting into each other like bits in a puzzle." Wives 
had obtained from their husbands the promise that the husbands would shoot them rather 
than let them fall into the hands of these desperadoes. The women within the Residency 
were kept on the smallest allowance that would maintain life. No opportunity of privacy. 
The death-angel and the birth-angel touched wings as they passed. Flies, mosquitoes, ver- 
min in full posses- 
sion of the place, 
and these women in 
momentary expecta- 
tion that the en- 
raged savages would 
rush upon them, in 
a violence of which 
club, and sword, and 
torch, and throat- 
cutting would be 
the milder forms. 

Our escort told 
us again and again 
of the bravery of 
these women. They 
did not despair. 
They encouraged 
the soldiery. They 
waited on the 
wounded and dying 
in the hospital. 
They gave up their 
stockings for hold- 
ers of the grape- 
shot. They solaced 
each other when 
their children died. 
When a husband or 
father fell such 
pra3'ers of sympathy 

were offered as only women can offer. They endured without complaint. They prepared 
their own children for burial. They were inspiration for the men who stood at their posts 
fighting until they dropped. 

Our escort told us that again and again news had come that Havelock and Outram were 
on the way to fetch these besieged ones out of their wretchedness. They had received a 
letter from Havelock rolled np in a quill and carried in the mouth of a disguised messenger, 
telling them he was on the way, but the next news was that Havelock had been compelled 
to retreat. It was constant vacillation between hope and despair. But one day they heard 




HINDOO PRIEST AT HIS DEVOTIONS. 



266 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

the guns of relief sounding nearer and nearer. Yet all the houses of Lucknow were 
fortresses tilled with armed miscreants, and every step of Havelock and his army was con- 
tested, — firing from housetops ; firing from windows ; firing from doorways. 

I asked our friend if he thought that the world-famous story of a Scotch lass in her 
delirium hearing the Scotch bagpipes advancing with the Scotch regiment, was a true story. 
He said he did not know but that it was true. Without this man's telling me I knew from 
my own observation that delirium sometimes quickens some of the faculties, and I rather 
think the Scotch lass in her delirium was the first to hear the bagpipes. I decline to believe 
that class of people who would like to kill all the poetry of the world and banish all the 
fine sentiment. They tell us that Whittier's poem about Barbara Freitchie was founded on 
a delusion, and that I,ongfellow's poems immortalized things that never occurred. The 
Scotch lass did hear the slogan. I almost heard it myself as I stood inside the Residency 
while my escort told of the coming on of the Seventy-eighth Highland Regiment. " Were 
you present when Havelock came in ? " I asked, for I could suppress the question no longer. 
His answer came : " I was not at the moment present, but with some other young fellows I 
saw soldiers dancing while two Highland pipers played, and I said, ' What is all this excite- 
ment about ? ' Then we came up and saw that Havelock was in, and Outram was in, and 
the regiments were pouring in." 

" Show us where they came in ! " I exclaimed, for I knew that they did not enter 
through the gate of the Residency, that being banked up inside to keep the murderers out. 
*' Here it is," answered my escort. " Here it is — the embrasure through which they came." 

We walked up to the spot. It is now a broken-down pile of bricks a dozen yards from 
the gate. Long grass now, but then a blood-spattered, bullet-scarred opening in the wall. 

As we stood there, although the scene was thirty-seven years ago, I saw them come in ; 
Havelock, pale and sick, but triumphant ; and Outram, whom all the equestrian statues in 
Calcutta and Europe cannot too grandly present. 

"What then happened?" I said to my escort. " Oh," he said, " that is impossible to 
tell. The earth was removed from the gate and soon all the army of relief entered, and 
some of us laughed, and some cried, and some prayed, and some danced. Highlanders so 
dust-covered and enough blood and wounds on their faces to make them unrecognizable, 
snatched the babes out of their mothers' arms and kissed them, and passed the babies along 
for other soldiers to kiss, and the wounded men crawled out of the hospital to join in the 
cheering, and it was wild jubilee, until, the first excitement passed, the story of how many 
of the advancing army had been slain on the way began to have tearful effect, and the story 
of suffering that had been endured inside the fort, and the announcement to children that 
they were fatherless, and to wives that they were widows, submerged the shouts of joy with 
wailing of agony." 

" But were you not embarrassed by the arrival of Havelock and 1400 men who brought 
no food with them ? " He answered, " Of course, we were put on smaller rations immedi- 
ately in order that they might share with us, but we knew that the coming of this reinforce- 
ment would help us to hold the place until further relief should come. Had not this first 
relief arrived as it did, in a day or two at njost, and perhaps in any hour, the besiegers 
would have broken in, and our end would have come. The Sepoys had dug six mines 
under the Residency and would soon have exploded all." 

After we had obtained a few bullets that had been picked out of the wall, and a piece 
of a bomb-shell, we walked around the eloquent ruins, and put our hands into the scars of 
the shattered masonry, and explored the cemetery inside the fort, where hundreds of the 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



267 



dead soldiers await the coining of the Lord of Hosts at the Last Day, and we could endure 
no more. My nerves were all a-tremble, and my emotions were wrung out, and I said, 
" Let us go." I had seen the Residency at Lucknow the day before with a beloved mission- 
ary, and he told me many interesting facts concerning the besiegement of that place, but 
this morning I had seen it in company with one who in that awful 1857 of the Indian 
Mutiny with his own fire had fought the besiegers, and with his own ears had heard the yell 
of the miscreants as they tried to storm the walls, and with his own eyes had witnessed a 
scene of pang, and sacrifice, and endurance, and bereavement, and prowess and rescue 
which has made all this Lucknow fortress and its surroundings the Mount Calvary of the 
nineteenth century. 




NEPAI,ESE GENERALS AND CHINESE EMBASSY. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



ANOTHER WOE IS PAST. 



*^ * E who visits the Residenc}' in this city and then departs has not seen Lucknow, 
l/*"^ nor learned more than half of its Iliad of woes. Havel ock and Outram went into 
f W the Residency September 21, but it was not until the morrow that the wounded 
^^^ y» of their army started to make entrance. There were a host of broken arms, and 
amputated limbs, and fractured jaws in Havelock's army to be looked after. Forty doolies, 
or litters, containing as many officers were being carried. The order was given that some 
one who knew the locality well should lead the mutilated and groaning procession. A Mr. 
Thornhill thought he knew, and offered his service, but he made a mistake, and, instead of 
leading the hospital procession where it would be comparatively safe, he led it into the ver>- 
jaws of destruction. The men who carried the doolies were themselves wounded or fright- 
ened, and dropped their burden and Red, and the Sepoys came in with bayonets, and knives, 
and clubs and cut, and stabbed, and dashed to death the helpless European soldiers, save the 

man in the front dooly, who was rushed through in 
safety. He was Lieutenant Havelock, the son of the 
great commander. These wounded men begged their 
comrades to shoot them before they fell into the hands of 
the Sepoys. Some of the guard who were taking these men 
to the Residency performed deeds of daring such as have 
not been eclipsed in any war since the first sword was 
brandished. Three or four men in a room would keep 
at bay hour after hour as many hundred Sepoys. It was 
all the way a track of blood and a burst of intrepidity. 

We pass along this road of immortal achievements 
and come to the place where Havelock died, after attempt- 
ing to do what no one else ever tried to do, and accom- 
plishing it, namely, with 1400 men fighting his way 
through 100,000 infuriated brutes. It was too much for 
his physical endurance, after all that he had gone through 
in his experience of many wars, and the hero lay dying in 
a tent, his wounded son reading to him the consolatory 
Scriptures. The'telegraph wires told all nations that Havelock was dying. He had received 
a message of congratulation from the Queen, and had been knighted, and such a reception 
as England never gave to any man since Wellington came back from Waterloo, awaited his 
return. But he will never again see his native land. He has led on his last army, and 
planned his last battle, but he is to gain another victory. He declared it when in his last 
hours he said to General Outram, " I die happy and contented. I have for forty years so 
ruled my life that when death came I might face it without fear. ' To die is gain.' " He 
said to his sons, " My sons, see how a Christian can die." Indeed, this was no new sentiment 




SIP- HENRY HAVELOCK. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



269 



with him. He once stated that in boyhood with four companions he was accustomed 
to seek the seclusion of one of the dormitories for purposes of devotion, though certain in 
this of being branded as Methodists and canting hypocrites. He had been immersed in a 
Baptist church. He acknowledged God in every victory, and says in one of his dispatches 
that he owes it " to the power of the Enfield rifle in British hands, to British pluck, and to 
the blessing of Almighty God on a most righteous cause." He was accustomed when on 
the march to take two hours for prayer and reading of the Scriptures every morning. If he 
started at six o'clock, he rose at four ; if he started at seven, he rose at five for his devotions. 




H. E. THE VICEROY'S EIvEPHANTS. 
Tlie India Home Government is vested in a Secretary of State, who is a member of the English Cabinet, but the executive 
power resides in a Viceroy, or Governor-General, appointed by the Crown, acting Under Secretary, whose term is six years. He 
maintains a court of no little magnificence, one of his allowances being a herd of elephants, which is used on state occasions, at 
which time they appear in very rich caparisons, as shown in the photograph. 

We rode out to see his grave, about three miles from Lucknow. A plain monument 
marks the place, but the epitaph is as beautiful and comprehensive as anything I have ever 
seen, and I copied it then and there. It is as follows : 

" Here rests the mortal remains of Henry Havelock, Major-General in the British Army, 
and Knight Commander of the Bath, who died at Dilkhoosha, L,ucknow, of dysentery, pro- 
duced by the hardships of a campaign in which he achieved an immortal fame, on the 24th 
of November, 1857. He was born on the 5th of April, 1795, at Bishopwearmouth, County 
Durham, England. Entered the army 1815. Came to India 1823, and served there with 
little interruption till his death. He bore an honorable part in the wars of Burmah, 



270 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

Afghanistan, the Mahretta campaign of 1843, and the Sutleg of 1845-6. Retarded by 
adverse circumstances in a subordinate position, it was the aim of his life to show 
that the profession of a Christian is consistent with the fullest discharge of the duties of a 
soldier. 

" He commanded a division in the Persian expedition of 1857. In the terrible convulsion 
of that year his genius and character were at length fully developed and known to the world. 
Saved from shipwreck on the Ceylon coast by that Providence which designed him for 
greater things, he was nominated to be the Commander of the column destined to relieve 
the brave garrison of lyucknow. This object, after almost superhuman exertion, he by the 
blessing of God accomplished. But he was not spared to receive on earth the reward so 
truly earned. The Divine Master whom he served saw fit to remove him from the sphere 
of his labor in the moment of his greatest triumph. He departed to his rest in humble but 
confident expectation of far greater rewards and honors which a grateful country was 
anxious to bestow. In him the skill of a commander, the courage and devotion of a soldier, 
the learning of a scholar, the grace of a highly bred gentleman, and all the social and 
domestic virtues of a husband, father and friend were blended together and strengthened, 
harmonized and adorned by the spirit of a true Christian, the result of the influence of the 
Holy Spirit on his heart, and of a humble reliance on the merits of a crucified Saviour. 
2 Timothy iv. : 7th and 8th verses : ' I have fought a good fight, I have finished my 
course, I have kept the faith : Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day : and not to me only, but 
unto all them also that love his appearing.' This monument is erected by his sorrowing 
widow and family." 

But I said to-day, while standing at Havelock's grave, " Why does not England take 
his dust to herself, and in Westminster Abbey make him a pillow ? " In all her history of 
wars there is no name more magnetic, yet she has expressed nothing on this man's tomb. 
His widow reared this monument. Do you say, " Let him sleep in the region where he 
did his pluckiest deeds ?" The same reason would have buried Wellington in Belgium, and 
Von Moltke at Versailles, and Grant at Vicksburg, and Stonewall Jackson far awa}- from his 
beloved Lexington, Virginia. Take him home to England — the rescuer of the men, women 
and children of Lucknow. Though his ear now dulled could not hear the roll of the organ 
when it sounds through the venerable Abbey the national anthem, it would hear the same 
trumpet that brings up from among those sacred walls the form of Outram, his fellow-hero 
in the overthrow of the Indian mutiny. Let Parliament make appropriation from the 
National Treasury, and some great warship, mider some favorite admiral, sail across the 
Mediterranean and Arabian seas, and wait at Bombay harbor for the coming of the dust of 
this conqueror of conquerors, and then let it be saluted by the shipping of all free nations. 
Let him come under the arches and along the aisles where have been carried the mightiest 
dead of many centuries. What a speech that was which Havelock made to his soldiers as he 
started for Cawnpore : " Over two hundred of our friends are still alive in Cawnpore. With 
God's help we will save them. I am trying you severely, my men, but I know what you 
are made of." " Hands up for Lucknow !" cried Havelock to his soldiers. Then he said, 
" It is too dark for me to see your hands." Then the soldiers gave a cheer, and he replied, 
" Ah, 3'oir are what I thought you were, Britons ! '.' The enthusiasm of his men was well 
suggested by the soldier who had been lying asleep, and, Havelock riding along, his horse 
stumbled on the soldier and awoke him, and the soldier recognizing him, cried out cheerily : 
" ]\Iake room for the General ! God bless the General." 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



271 



Before I go back to the Lucknow hotel to-day we must take a ride of about four miles 
and see the summer garden called Secunder Bagh, the place where the Hindoo and Moham- 
medan wretches made a stand against Sir Colin Campbell, who was coming for the second 
relief of Lucknow, for the relief of Havelock and Outram, as well as the imprisoned 
garrison. Two thousand of the Indians were enclosed within the garden, with a wall some 
twenty feet high. Sir Colin Campbell, after his men had made an opening in the wall, said, 
" Do you think that opening is large enough ? " and a private by the name of Lee, the very 
man who was telling me about it, his saying having gone into the records, cried out : " Sir 
Colin, let us charge upon them, and if the hole in the wall is not large enough, we will 
make it large enough with our bayonets." And Sir Colin commanded, " Charge ! " The 
Europeans made the charge and the two thousand fiends were then and there put to death. 
With a revolving pistol one Englishman shot ten Sepoys. The scoundrels, finding they 
were surrounded, threw away their arms, and, lifting their hands, prayed for mercy. Those 
attempting to escape were overtaken and slain. 

I have heard Sir Colin and his men severely criticised for this wholesale slaughter, 
and I have heard others praise it. There can be no doubt, 
however, that that awful annihilation broke the back of the 
mutiny. The Indians found that the Europeans could play 
at the same game of slaughter which the Asiatics had started. 
The plot was organized for the murder of all the Europeans 
in India. The work had been begun in all directions on an 
appalling scale, and the commanders of the English army 
made up their minds that this was the best way to stop it. 
The fact is, that war, in all circumstances, is barbarism. It 
is murder nationalized. Woe be to those who start it ! A 
mild and gentle war with the Sepoys was most certainly an 
impossibility. The natives of India are cruel and bloodthirsty. 
They ever and anon demonstrate it. The Black Hole of 
Calcutta was only the natural predecessor of Lucknow atroci- 
ties. I stood a few days ago on the very spot in Calcutta 
where the natives of India in 1756 enacted that scene 
which no other people on earth could have enacted. The 
Black Hole prison has been torn down, but a stone pave- 
ment, twenty feet by twenty, indicates the ground covered by the prison. The building 
had two small windows and was intended for two or three persons. These natives of India 
crowded into that one room of twenty feet by twenty feet, one hundred and forty-six 
Europeans. The midsummer heat, the stench, the suffocation, the trampling of one upon 
another, the going insane by some, the groaning, and shrieking, and begging, and praying of 
all, are matters of history. The Sepoys in the meanwhile held lights to the small windows 
and mocked the sufferers. Then all the sounds ceased. That night of June 20, 1756, passed, 
and one hundred and twenty-three corpses were taken out. Only twenty-three people out 
of the one hundred and forty-six were alive, and they had to be pulled out from under the 
corpses. Mrs. Carey, who survived, was taken by an Indian nabob into his harem and kept 
a prisoner for six years. Lucknow in 1857 was only an echo of Calcutta in 1756. During 
the mutiny of which I have been writing, natives who had been in the service of Europeans, 
and well treated by them, and with no caiise of offence, would, at the call of the mutineers, and 
without compunction, stab to death the father and mother of the household and dash out the 




SIR COI<IN CAMPBEI,L. 



272 



THK EARTH GIRDLED. 



brains of the children. This cruelty is a natural result of cruel customs for centuries. The 
throwing of children to the crocodiles in the Ganges, the leaping of widows on the funeral pyre 
of husbands (this coining from the fact that widows were supposed in many cases to have 
poisoned their husbands, and hence to lessen that evil the funeral pyre upon which the woman 
must by custom burn would be a hindrance to her commission of the crime), the swinging 
of devotees on iron hooks, the self-tortures of the Fakirs, the rolling of the gory Juggernaut 
over its victims, the brutal treatment of females, among other things allowing the husband, 
if he had not a male descendant, to cast off one wife and take another ; and the law of 
caste, which is a cast-iron law— all these things going on for thousands of years have made 
the native population of India so unfeeling and hard, that nothing can be harder. That 




A HINDOO GrRI.S' SCHOOIy. 

Natives of India are not so besotted with fanaticism as they were fifty years ago, and their progress is very rapid. Kducation- 
of the people may be said to have really begun in 1854, "when Sir Charles Wood established a system which required a diffusion 
of European knowledge through the languages understood by the masses. Normal schools for the training of teachers have- 
been established, and great attention is now being paid to the education of females, which was wholly neglected before, though 
fullest toleration in matters of faith is enjoyed. 

any of these fires have been extinguished, or any of these knives dulled, or any of these 
wheels halted, is not to be ascribed to any accession of kindness in the hearts of these 
natives ; but, under God, to the English Government. These natives are at peace now, but 
give them a chance and they will re-enact the scenes of 1756 and 1857. They look upon 
the English as conquerors and themselves as conquered. The mutiny of 1857 occurred 
because the British Government was too lenient, and put in places of trust and in command 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



273 



of forts too many of the natives. I call upon England to stop the present attempt to pla- 
cate the natives by allowing them to command forts and hold authority. Just as certainly 
as it is continued there will be more trouble. I am no alarmist, but the only way that these 
Asiatics can be kept from another mutiny is to put them out of power. Unless the policy 
of the British Government in India is changed, the L,ucknow, and Cawnpore, and Delhi 
martyrdoms, over which the hemispheres have wept, will be eclipsed by the Lucknow, and 
Cawnpore, and Delhi martydoms yet to be enacted. 

I speak from what I have seen and heard. I give the opinion of every intelligent Eng- 
lishman, and Irishman, and Scotchman, and American I have met in India. Prevention is 
better than cure. I do not say it is better that England rule India. I say nothing against 
the right of India to rule herself. But I do say that the moment the native population of 
this land think there is a possibility of driving back Europeans from India, they will 
make the attempt, and that they have enough cruelties for the time suppressed which, if let 
loose, would submerge with carnage everything from Calcutta to Bombay, and from the 
Himalayas to the coast of Coromandel. 

When I arrived in London on my return homeward. General Sir Henry M. Havelock, the 
son of the Eucknow commander, invited me to meet at a banquet at the United Service 
Club, the three greatest of the remaining heroes of the war in India, General Dodgson, 
General Sir William Olpherts and General Sir McEeod Innes. What a time of reminis- 
cence it was to hear those four heroes talk over the incidents of the bloodiest struggle in all 
history ! Sir Henry Havelock said to me : " My father knew not what fear was. He 
would say to me as he came out of his tent in the morning : ' Harry, have you read the 
Book ? ' ' Yes.' ' Have you said j'our prayers ?' ' Yes.' ' Have you had 3'our breakfast ? ' 
' Yes.' ' Come, then, and let us mount, and go out to be shot at, and die like gentlemen. ' " 




HINDOOS TELUNG THEIR BEADS. 



CHAPTER XXIX. ; 

CITY OF BLOOD. , 

GWO hours and ten minutes after its occurrence, Joseph Lee, of the Shropshire 
Regiment of Foot, rode in upon the Cawnpore massacre. I wanted to hear the 
story from some one who had been there in 1857, and with his own eyes gazed 
upon the slaughtered heaps of humanity. I could hardly wait until the horses 
■were put to the carriage, and Mr. Lee, seated with us, started for the scene, the story of 
which makes tame in contrast all Modoc and Choctaw butcheries. 

It seems that all the worst passions of the century were to be impersonated by one man, 
and he. Nana Sahib, and our escort at Cawnpore, Joseph Lee, knew the man personally. 
Unfortunatel}^, there is no correct picture of Nana Sahib in existence. The pictures of him 
published in the books of Europe and America, and familiar to us all, are an amusing 
mistake. This is the fact in regard to them : A lawyer of England was called to India 
for the purpose of defending the case of a native who had been charged with fraud. The 
attorney came and so skillfully managed the case of his client that the client paid him 
enormously for his services, and he went back to England, taking with him a picture of his 
Indian client. After a while the mutiny in India broke out, and Nana Sahib was mentioned 
as the champion villain of the whole affair, and the newspapers of England wanted a pic- 
ture of him, and to interview some one on Indian affairs who had recentty been in India. 
Among others, the journalists called upon this lawyer, recently returned. The only picture 
he had brought from India was a picture of his client, the man charged with fraud. The 
attorney gave this picture to the journalists as a specimen of the way the Hindoos dress, and 
forthwith that picture was used, either by mistake or intentionally, for Nana Sahib. The 
English lawyer said that he lived in dread that his client would some day see the use made 
of his picture, and it was not until the death of his Hindoo client that the lawyer divulged 
the facts. Perhaps it was never intended that the face of such a demon should be preserved 
among human records. I said to our escort : " Mr. Lee, was there any peculiarity in Nana 
Sahib's appearance?" The reply was: "Nothing very peculiar; he was a dull, lazy, 
cowardly, sensual man, brought up to do nothing, and wanted to continue on the same scale 
to do nothing." From what Mr. Lee told me, and from all I could learn in India, Nana 
Sahib ordered the massacre in that city from sheer revenge. His father abdicated the 
throne, and the English paid him annually a pension of $400,000. When the father died 
the English Government declined to pay the same pension to the son. Nana Sahib, but the 
poor fellow was not in any suffering from lack of funds. His father left him $80,000 in 
gold ornaments ; $500,000 in jewels ; $800,000 in bonds, and other resources amounting to 
at least $1,500,000. But the poor 5'oung man was not satisfied, and the Cawnpore massacre 
was his revenge. General Wheeler, the Englishman who had command of this citj', 
although often warned, could not see that the Sepoys were planning for his destruction and 
that of all his regiments and all the Europeans in "Cawnpore. 

(274) 




NANA SAHIB. 



(275) 



276 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

]Mr. Lee explained all this to me by the fact that General Wheeler had married a native, 
and he naturally took her story and thought there was no peril. But the time for the proc- 
lamation of Nana Sahib had come, and such a document went forth as never before had 
seen the light of day. I give only an extract : 

"As by the kindness of God and the good fortune of the Emperor, all the Christians 
who were at Delhi, Poonah, Sattara, and other places, and even those 5000 European 
soldiers who went in disguise into the former city and were discovered and sent to hell by 
the pious and sagacious troops, who are firm to their religion, and as they have all been 
conquered by the present government, and as no trace of them is left in these places, it is the 
duty of all the subjects and servants of the government to rejoice at the delightful intelligence 
and carry on their respective work with comfort and ease. As by the bounty of the glorious 
Almighty and the enemy-destroying fortune of the Emperor, the j-ellow-faced and narrow- 
minded people have been sent to hell, and Cawnpore has been conquered, it is necessary that 
all the subjects and land-owners, and government servants should be as obedient to the 
present government as they have been to the former one ; that it is the incumbent duty of all 
the peasants and landed proprietors of every district to rejoice at the thought that the Chris- 
tians have been sent to hell, and both the Hindoo and Mohammedan religions have been 
confirmed, and that they should, as usual, be obedient to the authorities of the government,, 
and never suffer any complaint against themselves to reach the ears of the higher authority." 

" Mr. L,ee, what is this? " I said to our escort as the carriage halted by an embankment. 
" Here," he said, " is the intrenchment where the Christians of Cav/npore took refuge." It 
is the remains of a wall which, at the time of the mutiny, was only four feet high, behind 
which, with no shelter from the sun, the heat at 130 degrees, four hundred and forty men 
and five hundred and sixty women and children dwelt nearly a month. A handful of flour 
and split peas was the daily ration, and only two wells nearby, the one in which they 
buried their dead, because they had no time to bury them in the earth, and the other well, 
the focus on which the artillery of the enemy played, so that it was a choice between death 
by thirst and death by bullet or shell. Ten thousand yelling Hindoos outside this frail wall, 
and 1000 suffering, dying people inside. In addition to the army of the Hindoos and 
Moslems, an invisible army of sickness swooped upon them. Some went raving mad under 
exposure ; others dropped under apoplexy. A starving, mutilated, fevered, sunstruck, 
ghastly group, waiting to die. Why did not the heathen dash down those mud walls and the 
10,000 annihilate the now less than 1000? It was because they seemed supernaturally 
defended." 

Nana Sahib resolved to celebrate an anniversary. The twenty-third of June, 1857, would 
be one hundred years since the battle of Plassy, when, under Lord Clive, India surrendered to 
England. That day the last European in Cawnpore was to be slaughtered. Other anni- 
versaries have been celebrated with wine, this was to be celebrated with blood. Other anni- 
versaries have been adorned with garlands ; this with drawn swords. Others have been 
kept with songs ; this with execrations. Others with the dance of the gay ; this with the 
dance of death. The infantry and cavalry and artillery of Nana Sahib made on that da}- one 
grand assault, but the few guns of the English and Scotch put to flight these Hindoo tigers. 
The courage of fiends broke against that mud wall as the waves of the sea against a light- 
house. The cavalry horses returned full run, without their riders. The Lord looked out 
from the heavens, and on that anniversary day gave the victory to his people. 

Therefore Nana Sahib must try some other plan. Standing in a field nor far from the 
intrenchment of the English was a native Christian woman, Jacobee by name, holding high. 



278 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

up in her hand a letter. It was evidently a communication from the enemy, and General 
Wheeler ordered the woman brought in. She handed him a proposed treaty. If General 
Wheeler and his men would give up their weapons, Nana Sahib would conduct them into 
safety ; they could march out unmolested, the men, women, and children ; they could go 
down to-morrow to the Ganges, where they would find boats to take them in peace to 
Allahabad. 

There was some opposition to signing this treaty, but General Wheeler's wife told him 
he could trust the natives and so he signed the treaty. There was great joy in the intrench- 
ment that night. Without molestation they went out and got plenty of water to drink, and 
water for a good wash. The hunger and thirst and exposure from the consuming sun, with 
the thermometer from 120 to 140, would cease. Mothers rejoiced at the prospect of saving 
their children. The young ladies of the intrenchment would escape the wild beasts in 
human form. On the morrow, true to the promise, carts were ready to transport those who 
were too much exhausted to walk. 

" Get in the carriage," said Mr. Lee, " and we will ride to the banks of the Ganges, 
for which the liberated combatants and non-combatants started from this place." On our 
way Mr. Lee pointed out a monument over the burial place which was opened for General 
Wheeler's intrenchment, and the well into which every night the dead had been dropped. 
Around it is a curious memorial. There are five crosses, one at each corner of the garden, 
and one at the centre. Riding on, we came to the Memorial Church built to the memory 
of those fallen • in Cawnpore. The walls are covered with tablets and epitaphs. I copied 
two or three of the inscriptions. "These. are they who came out of great tribulation;" 
also, " The dead shall be raised incorruptible ; " also, " In the world ye shall have 
tribulation, but be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world ; " also, " The Lord 
gave ; the Lord hath taken away ; " also, " Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden." 

" Get into the carriage," said Mr. Lee, and we rode on to the Ganges, and got out at a 
Hindoo temple standing on the banks. "Now," said Mr. Lee, "here is the place to which 
General Wheeler and his people came under the escort of Nana Sahib." I went down the 
steps to the margin of the river. Down these steps went General Wheeler and the men, 
women, and children under his care. They stood on the side of the steps, and Nana Sahib 
and his staff stood on the other side. As the women were getting into the boats Nana Sahib 
objected that only the aged and infirm women and children should go on board the boats. 
The young and attractive women were kept out. Twenty-eight boats were filled with men, 
women, and children and floated out into the river. Each boat contained ten armed 
natives. Then three boats fastened together were brought up, and General Wheeler and his 
staff" got in. Although orders were given to start, the three boats were somehow detained. ' 
At this juncture a boy twelve years of age hoisted on the top of the Hindoo temple on the 
banks two flags, at which signal the boatmen and armed natives jumped from the boats and 
swam for the shore ; and from innumerable guns the natives on the bank fired on the boats, 
and masked batteries above and below roared with destruction, and the boats sank with their 
precious cargo, and all went down save three strong swimmers, who got to the opposite 
shore. Those who struggled out nearby were dashed to death. Nana Sahib and his staff" 
with their swords slashed to pieces General Wheeler and his staff, who had not got well 
away from the shore. 

I said that the young and attractive women were not allowed to get into the boats. 
These were marched away under the guard of the Sepoys. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 279 

" Which way ? " I inquired. " I will show j'ou," said Mr. Lee. Again we took seats in. 
the carriage and started for the climax of desperation and diabolism. Now we are on the 
way to a summer house called the Assembly Rooms, which had been built for recreation 
and pleasure. It had two rooms, each twenty by ten feet, and some windowless closets, and 
here were enclosed two hundred and six helpless people. It was to become the prison of 
these women and children. Some of the Sepoys got permission of Nana Sahib to take 
one or more of these ladies to their own place, on the promise they should be brought back 
to the summer garden next morning. A daughter of General Wheeler was so taken and did 
not return. She afterward married the Mohammedan who had taken her to his tent. 
Some of the Sepoys amused themselves by thrusting children through with bayonets and 
holding them up before their mothers in the summer house. All the doors closed and the 
Sepoys standing guard, the crowded women and children awaited their doom for eighteen 
days and nights amid sickness, and flies, and stench, and starvation. 

Then Nana Sahib heard that Havelock was coming, and his name was a terror to the 
Sepoys. Lest the women and children imprisoned in the summer house, or Assembly 
Rooms, should be liberated, he ordered that their throats should be cut. The officers were 
commanded to do the work and attempted it, but failed because the law of caste would not 
allow the Hindoo to hold the victims while they were being slain. Then one hundred men 
were ordered to fire through the windows, but they fired over the heads of the imprisoned 
ones, and only a few were killed. Then Nana Sahib was in a rage, and ordered professional 
butchers from among the lowest of the gypsies to gO at the work. Five of them with 
hatchets and swords and knives began the work, but three of them collapsed and fainted 
under the ghastliness, and it was left to two butchers to complete the slaughter. The 
struggle, the sharp cut, the blinding blow, the cleaving through scalp and skull, the begging- 
for life, the death agony of hour after hour, the tangled limbs of the corpses, the piled-up 
dead — only God and those who were inside the summer house can ever know. The 
butchers came out exhausted, thinking they had done their work, and the doors were closed. 
But when they were again opened, three women and three boys were still alive. All these 
were soon, dispatched, and not a Christian or a European was left in Cawnpore. The 
murderers were paid fifty cents for each lady slain. The Mohammedan assassins dragged 
by the hair the dead bodies out of the summer house and threw them into a well, by which 
I stood with such feelings as you cannot imagine. But after the mutilated bodies had been 
thrown into the well, the record of the scene remained in hieroglyphics of crimson on the 
floor and wall of the slaughter-house. An eye-witness says that, as he walked in, the blood 
was shoe deep, and on this blood were tufts of hair, pieces of muslin, broken combs, frag- 
ments of pinafores, children's straw hats, a card-case containing a curl with the inscription, 
" Ned's hair, with love ; " a few leaves of an Episcopal" prayer-book, also a book entitled,. 
" Preparation for Death ; " a Bible, on the fly-leaf of which was written, " For darling 
mamma, from her aflectionate daughter, Isabella Blair " — both the one who presented it and 
the one to whom it was presented, departed forever. 

I said : " Mr. Lee, I have heard that indelicate things were found written on the wall 
by the inmates." He answered : " No ; but these poor creatures wrote in charcoal and 
scratched on the wall the story of the brutalities they had suffered." 

When the English and Scotch troops came upon the scene, their wrath was so great 
that General Neill had the butchers arrested, and before being shot, compelled them to wipe 
up part of the floor of this place of massacre, this being the worst of their punishment, for 
there is nothing that a Hindoo so hates as to touch blood. When Havelock came upon the 



28o 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



scene he had this order annulled. The well was now not only full of human bodies, but 
corpses piled on the outside. The soldiers were for many hours engaged in covering the dead. 
It was about five o'clock in the evening when I came upon this place in Cawnpore. The 
building in which the massacre took place has been torn down and a garden of exquisite 
and fragrant flowers surrounds the scene. Mr. I^ee pointed out to us some seventy mounds 
containing bodies or portions of bodies of those not thrown into the well. A soldier stands 
on guard to keep the foliage and flowers from being ruthlessly pulled. I asked a soldier if I 
might take a rose as a memento, and he handed me a cluster of roses, red and white, both 
colors suggestive to me ; the red typical of the carnage there enacted, and the white for the 
purity of those who from that spot ascended. But of course the most absorbing interest 

concentrated at the well, into 
which hundreds of women and 
children were flung or lowered. 
A circular wall of white marble 
encloses this well. The wall is 
about twenty feet high. Inside 
this wall there is a marble pave- 
ment. I paced it, and found it 
fifty-seven paces around. In the 
centre of this enclosure, and im- 
mediately above the well of the 
dead, is a sculptured angel of res- 
urrection, with illumined face ; 
and two palm branches, mean- 
ing victory. This angel is look- 
ing down toward the slumberers 
beneath, but the two wings sug- 
gest the rising of the last day. 
Mighty consolation in marble ! 
They went down iinder the hatch- 
ets of the Sepoys ; they shall come 
up under the trumpet that shall 
wake the dead. I felt weak and 
all a-tremble as I stood reading 
these words on the stone that 
covers the well : " Sacred to the 
perpetual memory of a great company of Christian people, chiefly women and children, 
cruelly massacred near this spot by the rebel. Nana Sahib, and thrown, the dying with the 
dead, into the well beneath, on the 15th day of July, 1857." On the arch of the mausoleum 
"were cut the words : " These are they who came out of great tribulation." 

The sun was sinking beneath the horizon as I came down the seven or eight steps of 
that palace of a sepulchre, and I bethought myself, " No emperor, unless it was Napoleon, 
ever had more glories around his pillow of dust, and no queen, unless it were the one of 
Taj Mahal, had reared for her grander cenotaph than crowns the resting places of the 
martyrs at Cawnpore. But where rest the bones of the Herod of the nineteenth century, 
Nana Sahib ? No one can tell. Two men sent out to find the whereabouts of the daughter 
of General Wheeler tracked Nana Sahib during a week's ride into the wilderness, and they 




MEMORIAL WELI, AT CAWNPORE. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



281 



were told that for a while after the mutiny Nana Sahib set up a little pomp in the jungles. 
Among a few thousand Hindoos and Mohammedans he took for himself the only two tents 
the neighborhood had, while they lived in the rain and mud. Nana Sahib, with one servant 
carrying an umbrella, would go every day to bathe, and people would go and stare. For 
some reason, after a while he forsook even that small attention and disappeared among the 
ravines of the Himalayan mountains. He took with him in his flight that which he always 
took with him — a ruby of vast value. He wore it as some wear an amulet. He wore it as 
some wear a life-preserver. He wore it on his bosom. The Hindoo priest told him as long 
as he wore that ruby his fortunes would be good, but both the ruby and the prince who 
wore it have vanished. Not a treasure on the outside of the bosom, but a treasure inside 
the heart, is the best protection. Solomon, who had rubies in the hilt of swords, and rubies 
in his crown, declared that which Nana Sahib did not find out in his time : " wisdom is 
better than rubies." When the forests of India are cleared by the axes of another civiliza- 
tion, the lost ruby of this Cawnpore monster may be picked up, and be brought back again 
to blaze among the world's jewels. But who shall reclaim for decent sepulture the remains 
of Nana Sahib ? Ask the vultures. Ask the reptiles. Ask the jackals. Ask the mid- 
night Himalayas. 




ON THE BANKS OF THE GANi.Ls 




(282) 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE TAJ. 

IN a journey around the world it may not be easy to tell the exact point which 
divides the pilgrimage into halves. But there was one structure toward which ■we 
were all the time traveling, and having seen that we felt that if we saw nothing 
more, our expedition would be a success. That one object was the Taj of India. 
It is the crown of the whole earth. The spirits of architecture met to enthrone a king, and 
the spirit of the Parthenon at Athens was there ; and the spirit of St. Sophia of Constanti- 
nople was there ; and the spirit of St.. Isaac of St. Petersburg was there ; and the spirit of 
the Baptistery of Pisa was there ; and the spirit of the Great Pyramid and of the L,uxor 
obelisk, and of the Porcelain tower of Nankin, and of St. Mark's of Venice, and the spirits 
of all the great towers, great cathedrals, great mausoleums, great sarcophagi, great capitols 
for the living, and of great necropolises for the dead, were there. And the presiding genius 
of the throng, with gavel of Parian marble smote the table of Russian malachite, and called 
the throng of spirits to order, and called for a vote as to which spirit should wear the chief 
crown, and mount the chief throne, and wave the chief sceptre, and by unanimous acclaim 
the cry was : " Long live the spirit of the Taj, king of all the spirits of architecture ! 
Thine is the Taj Mahal of India ! " 

The building is about six miles from Agra, and as we rode out in the early dawn we 
heard nothing but the hoofs and wheels that pulled and turned us along the road, at 
every yard of which our expectation rose until we had some thought that we might be 
disappointed at the first glimpse, as some say they were disappointed. But how anyone can 
be disappointed' with the Taj is almost as great a wonder to me as the Taj itself. There 
are some people always disappointed, and who knows but that having entered heaven they 
may criticise the architecture of the Temple, and the cut of the white robes, and say that 
the River of Life is not quite up to their expectations, and that the white horses on which 
the conquerors ride seem a little springhalt, or spavined ? 

My son said, " There it is ! " I said, " Where? " For that which he saw to be the 
building seemed to me to be more like the morning cloud blushing under the stare of the 
rising sun. It seemed not so much built up from earth as let down from heaven. For- 
tunately you stop at an elaborated gateway of red sandstone one-eighth of a mile from the 
Taj, an entrance so high, so arched, so graceful, so four-domed, so painted, and chisled, and 
scrolled that you come very gradually upon the Taj, which structure is enough to intoxicate 
the eye, and stun the imagination, and entrance the soul. We go up the winding stairs of 
this majestic entrance of the gateway, and buy a few pictures, and examine a few curios, 
and from it look off upon the Taj, and descend from the pavement to the garden that 
raptures everything between the gateway and the ecstasy of marble and precious stones. 
You pass along a deep stream of water in which all manner of brilliant fins swirl and float. 
There are eighty-four fountains that spout, and bend, and arch themselves to fall in showers 
of pearl in basins of snowy whiteness. Beds of all imaginable flora greet the nostril before 

(283) 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 285 

they do the eye and seem to roll in waves of color as you advance toward the vision you 
are soon to have of what human genius did when it did its best ; moon-flowers, lilacs, mari- 
golds, tulips, and almost everywhere the lotus ; thickets of bewildering bloom ; on either 
side trees from many lands bend their arborescence over your head, or seem with convoluted 
branches to reach out their arms toward you in welcome. On and on you go amid tama- 
rind, and cypress, and poplar, and oleander, and yew, and sycamore, and banyan, and palm, 
and trees of such novel branch, and leaf, and girth, you cease to ask their name or nativity. 
As you approach the door of the Taj one experiences a strange sensation of awe, and tender- 
ness, and humility, and worship. The building is only a grave, but what a grave ! Built 
for a queen who, according to some, was very good ; and, according to others, was very 
bad. I choose to think she was very good. At any rate, it makes me feel better to think 
that this commemorative pile was set up for the immortalization of virture rather than vice. 
The Taj is a mountain of white marble, but never such walls faced each other with exquisite- 
ness ; never such a tomb was cut out from block of alabaster ; never such congregation 
of precious stones brightened, and gloomed, and blazed, and chastened, and glorified a 
building since sculptor's chisel cut its first curve, or painter's pencil traced its first figure, 
or mason's plumb-line measured its first wall, or architect's compass swept its first circle. 

The Taj has sixteen great arched windows, four at each corner. Also at each of the 
four corners of the Taj stands a minaret one hundred and thirty-seven feet high. Also at 
each side of this building is a splendid mosque of red sandstone. Two hundred and fifty 
years has the Taj stood, and yet not a wall has cracked, nor a mosaic loosened, nor an arch 
sagged, nor a panel dulled. The storms of two hundred and fifty winters have not marred, 
nor the heats of two hundred and fifty summers disintegrated a marble. There is no story 
of age written by mosses on its white surface. Montaz, the queen, was beautiful, and Shah 
Jehan, the king, here proposed to let all the centuries of time know it. She was married 
at twenty 5'ears of age and died at twenty-nine. Her life ended as another life began ; as 
the rose bloomed the rosebush perished. To adorn this dormitory of the dead, at the com- 
mand of the king, Bagdad sent to this building its cornelian, and Ceylon its lapis-lazuli, and 
the Punjab its jasper, and Persia its amethyst, and Thibet its turquoise, and Lanka its sap- 
phire, and Yemen its agate, and Punah its diamonds, and bloodstones, and sardonyx, and 
chalcedony, and moss agates are as common as though they were pebbles. You find one 
spray of vine beset with eighty and another with one hundred stones. Twenty thousand men 
were twentj' years in building it, and although the labor was slave-labor, and not paid for, 
the building cost what would be about $60,000,000 of our American mone}'. Some of the 
jewels have been picked out of the wall by iconoclasts or conquerors, and substitutes of less 
value have taken their places ; but the vines, the traceries, the arabesques, the spandrels, 
the entablatures are so wondrous that you feel like dating the rest of your life from the day 
you first saw them. In letters of black marble the whole of the Koran is spelled out in 
and on this august pile. The king sleeps in the tomb besides the queen, although he 
intended to build a palace as black as this was white on the opposite side of the river for 
himself to sleep in. Indeed, the foundation for such a necropolis of black marble is still 
there, and from the white to the black temple of the dead a bridge was to cross ; but the 
son dethroned him and imprisoned him, and it is wonderful that the king had any place at all 
in which to be buried. Instead of windows to let in the light upon the two tombs, there is 
a trellis-work of marble, marble cut so delicately thin that the sun shines through it as 
easily as through glass. Look the world over and you find no such translucency, canopies, 
traceries, lacework, embroideries of stone. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 287 

We had heard of the wonderful resonance of this Taj, and so I tried it. I suppose 
there are more sleeping echoes in that building waiting to be wakened by the human voice 
than in any building ever constructed. I uttered one word, and there seemed descending 
invisible choirs in full chant, and there was a reverberation that kept on long after one 
would have expected it to cease. When a line of a hymn was sung there were rephing, 
rolling, rising, falling, interweaving sounds that seemed modulated by beings seraphic. 
There were aerial sopranos and bassos, soft, high, deep, tremulous, emotional, commingling. 
It was like an antiphonal of heaven. But there are four or five Taj Mahals. It has one 
appearance at sunrise, another at noon, another at sunset, and another by moonlight. 
Indeed, the silver trowel of the moon, and the golden trowel of the sunlight, and the leaden 
trowel of the storm build and rebuild the glory, so that it never seems twice alike. It has 
all moods, all complexions, all grandeurs. From the top of the Taj, which is two hundred 
and fifty feet high, springs a spire thirty feet higher, and that is enameled with gold. 
What an anthem in eternal rhythm ! Lyrics and elegies in marble ! Sculptured hosanna ! 
Masonry as of supernatural hands ! Mighty doxology in stone ! I shall see nothing to 
equal it until I see the Great White Throne and on it Him from whose face the earth and 
the heavens flee away. 

The Taj is the pride of India, and especially of Mohammedanism. An English officer 
of the fortress told us that when during the general mutiny in 1857 the Mohammedans 
proposed insurrection at Agra, the English Government aimed the guns of the fort at the 
Taj and said : " You make insurrection, and that same day we will blow your Taj to atoms," 
and that threat ended the disposition for mutiny at Agra. 

I shall take home with me for my book some pictures of the Taj, and I have already 
among my baggage a block of alabaster hewn here, about a foot square, showing this build- 
ing in miniature. To try to put such a majesty of structure in so small a compass may 
seem like trying to compress Haydn's " Creation " into a music-box, or paint Michael Angelo's 
" Last Judgment " on a cup. But this imitation on a small scale of the grandest of human 
creations may in coming years revive my memory of that which I have now seen. And 
then some day when at home the dull weather or overwork depresses me, and I need 
arousal, I will put this portable Taj on my writing-desk before me, and if there be no 
power in the light that tips the golden pinnacles to fire my imagination, and if mj' 
thoiights from the tiny dome of alabaster cannot spring heavenward, and if out of all the 
precious stones that pave, and wall, and crown this mausoleum, there be not enough to 
make a stairs on which to climb into higher experiences, then it will not be the fault of the 
great Frenchman, Austin de Bordeau, who built this architectural miracle of all ages, but 
because I did not properly improve this coronal opportunity of a lifetime. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

DELHI— THE ANCIENT CAPITAL. 

BEFORE the first historian impressed his first word in clay, or cut his first word on 
marble, or wrote his first word on papyrus, Delhi stood in India, a contemporary 
of Babylon and Nineveh. We know that Delhi existed longer before Christ's 
time than we live after his time. Delhi is built on the ruins of seven cities, 
which ruins cover fourteen miles with wrecked temples, broken fortresses, split tombs, 
tumbled-down palaces and the debris of centuries. An archaeologist could profitably spend 
his life here talking with the past through its lips of venerable masonry. 

When we arrived the city was nearly abandoned except by the natives, for malignant 
fevers of all sorts reigned. The station-master told me that eighty-five of the employes of 
the railroad were down with sickness. A lady, to whom we went for information regarding 
the city, said all the members of her family had the fever, and she soon would be down 
with it. We had the best hotel of the city to ourselves. The rainy season had just ceased 
and the rivers were receding and leaving the flats and marshes to produce aches, and pains, 
and illnesses enough to supply all India. A wealthy American had, some months before, 
hired this entire hotel for his family, clearing out all the other guests, and paying a large 
price for exclusive occupancy. But at ordinary charges all the rooms of the large hotel 
were put at our disposal, the fevers abroad in Delhi securing for us as much room as a 
multi-millionairist had bought for one family. The hotel here is unusually good for India, 
but for some reason nearly all the hotels of India are distasteful. There is one style of 
beverage that I am especially fond of, and you cannot get it in India. I looked for it up 
and down in all the cities. You can buy champagne, and beer, and brandy, and many 
styles of drinks, but the rare beverage I speak of you cannot get. The thirst for it some- 
times came upon me so mightily I would have given ten dollars for a bottle. There are 
plenty of distilleries in that country, but my favorite kind of liquor they do not brew. I 
so needed the stimulus that I was impatient to get a glass, at least what is called " three 
fingers " of it. I mean good water. Nothing under heaven can take the place of it. A 
glass of water in most parts of India is a small aquarium, and a miniature menagerie, and drink- 
ing it you merely drink the occupants, the denizens, the inhabitants out of the glass into 
your own digestive organs, and there are internal riots, and strikes, and rebellions, and 
massacres, and revolutions, and pandemoniums that either put you in bed or grave. The 
inestimable blessing that in America you get by the pailful you cannot in some parts of 
India get by the thimbleful. And then the advice given me I give others : " Butter your 
own toast." "Why?" I asked, and you ask. Because the modes of buttering toast in the 
hotels of India are far from satisfactory. The native cook takes a dirty towel and dips it in 
grease and rubs it over the surface of the toast. The advantage is that he can butter sixty 
pieces of toast in sixty seconds. One wipe, and the deed is done ! This is all a matter of 
taste, but it does not suit my taste. Yet, it does not make much difference what yoir eat or 
where you sleep. You are in India for one object, namely, sight-seeing. 

(288) 





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C-^ 


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(289) 



290 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



On arrival in Calcutta or Bombay, either the east side of India or the west side, you 
must hire a traveling servant, some one commended to you for honesty and capacity, to 
speak somewhat of English. You must also buy a woolen rug and two blankets for sleeping 
purposes, as in many places hotels do not provide anything but a bedstead. Then, you 
must wear around you what has a frightful name, but is really a sanitary precaution, a 
cholera-belt. You must have a sun-hat, a white umbrella, and white canvas shoes, and 
plenty of determination not to have your disposition ruffled, and ought to carry a full reali- 




AKB VK 5 P\L^ 



^E AlNd audienle, room \t agra. 



Akbar (very great) was the greatest Asiatic monarch of modern times He assumed the rulership of India in 1558, and the 
wisdom, vigor and humanity with which he organized and administered his dominions is unexampled m the East. Although 
a Mohammedan he was tolerant to other religions, and even made a study of Christianity and attempted the promulgation of a new 
religion of his own. He encouraged literature, was progressive in spirit, merciful and just as a ruler, and sought by every means to 
relieve his subjects from the burdens of taxation. He died in 1605. 

zation of the fact that you are having an opportunity which hundreds of millions of people 
have longed for, yet died without satisfying. 

And now we are in the city of Delhi. There are a hundred things here you ought to 
see, but three things you must see. The first thing I wanted to see was the Cashmere Gate, 
for that was the point at which the most wonderful deed of daring which the world has 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



291 



ever seen was done. That was the turning-point of the mutiny of 1857, so far as Delhi was 
concerned. A lady at Delhi put into my hand an oil-painting of about eighteen inches 
square, a picture well executed, but chiefly valuable for what it represented. It was a scene 
from the time of mutiny ; two horses at full run, harnessed to a carriage in which were four 
persons. She said : " Those persons on the front seat are my father and mother. The 
young lady on the back seat holding in her arms a baby of a year was my older sister, and 
the baby was myself. My mother, who is down with the fever in the next room, painted 
that ■ years ago. The horses are in full run, because we were fleeing for our lives. My 
mother is driving, for the reason that father, standing up in the front of his carriage, had to 
defend us with his gun, as you there see. He fought our way out and on for many a mile, 
shooting down the Sepoys as we went. We had somewhat suspected trouble, and had 




REBEI, SEPOYS AT DELHI. 



become suspicious of our servants. A prince had requested a private inter\'iew wnth my 
father, who was editor of the Delhi Gazette. The prince proposed to come veiled, so that 
no one might recognize him, but my mother insisted on being present, and the interview 
did not take place. A large fish had been sent to our family and four other families, the 
present an oSering of thanks for the king's recovery from a recent sickness. But we 
suspected poison and did not eat the fish. One day all our servants came up and said they 
must go and see what was the matter. We saw what was intended, and knew that if the 
servants returned they would murder all of us. Things grew worse and worse until this scene 
of flight shown in the picture took place. You see, the horses were wild with fright. This 
was not only because of the discharge of guns, but the horses were struck and pounded 



292 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



by Sepoys, and ropes were tied across the way, and the savage halloo, and the shout of 
revenge made all the way of our flight a horror." 

The books have fully recorded the heroism displayed at Delhi and approximate regions, 
but make no mention of this family of Wagentreibers, whose flight I am mentioning. But 
the Madras Atheneii-m printed this : 

" And now ! Are not the deeds of the Wagentreibers, though he wore a round hat and 
she a crinoline, as worthy of imperishable verse as those of the heroic pair whose nuptials 
graced the court of Charlemagne ? A more touching picture than that of the brave man 
contending with well-nerved arm against the black and threatening fate impending over his 
wife and child, we have never seen. Here was no strife for the glory of physical prowess, 
or the spoil of shining arms, but a conquest of the human mind, an assertion of the powers 




'"^ 



SHOOTING PRISONERS FROM A GUN. 
One of the most tragic episodes in the history of India was the Sepoy RebeUion of 1857, which began in a mad riot of ] 
and rapine. When the uprising was finally suppressed, Sir Hector Monroe executed a number of the leaders by lashing them 
to a cannon and blowing them from the muzzle. 

cf intellect over the most appalling array of circumstances that could assail a human being. 
Men have become gray in front of sudden and unexpected peril, and in ancient days so much 
was courage a matter of heroics and mere instinct that we read in immortal verse of heroes 
struck with panic and fleeing before the enemy. But the savage Sepoys with their hoarse 
war-cry, and swarming like wasps around the Wagentreibers, struck no terror into the brave 
man's heart. His heroism was not the mere ebullition of despair, but like that of his wife, 
calm and wise ; standing upright that he might use his arms better." 

As an incident will sometimes more impress one than a generality of statement, I pre- 
sent the flight of this one family from Delhi merely to illustrate the desperation of the 




THROUGH THE STREETS OF CA\\'N'i'(iI- 






294 -THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

times. The fact was that the Sepoys had taken possession of the city of Delhi, and they 
were, with all their artillery, fighting back the Europeans who were on the outside, and 
murdering all the Europeans who were inside. The city of Delhi has a crenulated wall on 
three sides, a wall five and one-half miles long, and the fourth side of the city is defended 
by the river Jumna. In addition to these two defences of wall and water, there were 40,000 
Sepoys, all armed. Twelve hundred British soldiers were to take that city. Nicholson, the 
immortal general, commanded them, and you must visit his grave before you leave Delhi. 
He fell leading his troops. He commanded them even after mortally wounded. You will 
read this inscription on his tomb : 

"John Nicholson, who led the assault of Delhi, but fell in 
the hour of victory, mortally wounded, and 
died twenty-third September, 1857. 
Aged 35 years." 

With what guns and men General Nicholson could muster he had laid siege to this 
walled city filled with devils. What fearful odds ! Twelve hundred British troops 
unprotected by any military works to take a city surrounded by firm and high masonry, on 
the top of which were one hundred and fourteen guns defended by 40,000 foaming Sepoys. 
A larger percentage of troops fell here than in any great battle I happen to know of. The 
Crimean percentage of the fallen was 17.48, but the percentage of Delhi was 37.9. Yet 
that city must be taken, and it can only be taken by such courage as has never been 
recorded in all the annals of bloodshed. Every charge of the British regiments against the 
walls and gates had been beaten back. The hyenas of Hindooism and Mohammedanism 
howled over the walls, and the English army could do nothing but bury their own dead. But 
at this gate (a picture of which I send for my book) I stand and watch an exploit that 
makes the page of history tremble with agitation. This city has ten gates, but the most 
famous is the one before which we now stand, and it is called Cashmere Gate. Write the 
words in red ink, because of the carnage ! Write them in letters of light, for the illustrious 
deeds ! Write them in letters of black, for the bereft and the dead. Will the world ever 
forget that Cashmere Gate ? I,ieutenants Salkeld and Home, and Sergeants Burgess, 
Carmichael and Smith offered to take bags of powder to the foot of that gate and set them 
on fire, blowing open the gate, although they must die in doing it. There they go, just after 
sunrise, each one carrying a sack containing twenty-four pounds of powder, and doing this 
under the fire of the enemy. Lieutenant Home was the first to jump into the ditch, which 
still remains before the gate. As they go, one by one falls under the shot and shell. One 
of the mortally wounded, as he falls, hands his sack of powder with a box of lucifer matches 
to another, telling him to fire the sack ; when, with an explosion that shook the earth for 
twenty miles around, part of the Cashmere Gate was blown into fragments, and the bodies 
of some of these heroes were so scattered they were never gathered for funeral, or grave, or 
monument. The British army rushed in through the broken gate, and although six days 
of hard fighting were necessary before the city was in complete possession, the crisis was 
past. The Cashmere Gate open, the capture of Delhi and all it contained of palaces, and 
mosques, and treasures was possible. L,ord Napier, of Magdala, of whom Mr. Gladstone 
spoke to me so affectionately when I was his guest at Hawarden, England, has lifted a 
monument near this Cashmere Gate with the names of the men who there fell inscribed 
thereon. That English L,ord who had seen courage on many a battlefield, visited this Cash- 
mere Gate, and felt that the men who opened it with the loss of their own lives ought to be 




(295) 



296 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

commemorated, and hence this cenotaph. But, after all, the best monument is the Gate 
itself, with the deep gouges in the brick wall on the left side made by two bombshells, and 
the wall above torn by ten bombshells, and the wall on the right side defaced, and scarped, 
and plowed, and gullied by all styles of long-reaching weaponry. Let the words " Cash- 
mere Gate" as a synonym for patriotism, and fearlessness, and self-sacrifice go into all 
history, all art, all literature, all time, all eternity ! 

Another thing you must see if you go to Delhi, though you leave many things unseen, 
is the palace of the Moguls. It is an enclosure of a thousand yards by five hundred. You 
enter through a vaulted hall nearly four hundred feet long. Floors of Florentine mosaic, 
and walls once emeralded, and sapphired, and carbuncled, and diamonded. I said to the 
guide : " Show us where once stood the Peacock Throne." " Here it was," he responded. 
All the thrones of the earth put together would not equal that for costliness and brilliance. 
It had steps of silver, and the seat and arms were of solid gold. It cost about $150,000,000. 
It stood between two peacocks, the feathers and plumes of which were fashioned out of 
colored stones. Above the throne was a life-size parrot, cut out of one emerald. Above all 
was a canopy resting on twelve columns of gold, the canopy fringed with pearls. Seated 
here, the emperor on ptiblic occasions wore a crown containing, among other things, the 
Koh-i-noor diamond, and the entire blaze of coronet cost $10,350,000. This superb and 
once almost supernaturally beautiful room has imbedded in the white marble wall letters 
of black marble, which were translated to me from Persian into English as meaning : 

" If on the earth there be an Eden of bliss, 
That place is this, is this, is this, is this. ' ' 

But the peacocks that stood beside the throne have flown away, taking all the display 
with them, and those white marble floors were reddened with slaughter, and those bath- 
rooms ran with blood, and that Eden of which the Persian couplet on the walls spake has 
had its flowers wither, and its fruits decay, and I thought while looking at the brilliant 
desolation, and standing amid the banished glories of that throne-room, that some one had 
better change a little that Persian couplet on the wall and make it read : 

If there be a place where mucli you miss, 
That place is this, is this, is this, is this. 

As I came out of the palace into the street of Delhi, I thought to myself : paradises 
are not built out of stone ; are not cut in sculpture ; are not painted on walls ; are not fashioned 
out of precious stones ; do not spray the cheek with foimtains ; do not offer thrones or 
crowns. Paradises are built out of natures, uplifted and ennobled ; and what architect's com- 
pass may not sweep, and sculptor's chisel may not cut, and painter's pencil may not sketch, 
and gardener's skill may not lay out, the grace of God can achieve, and if the heart be 
right, all is right ; and if the heart be wrong, all is wrong. 

But I will not yet allow you to leave Delhi. The third thing you must see, or 
never admit that you have been in India, is the mosque called Jumma Musjid. It is the 
grandest mosque I ever saw except St. Sophia at Constantinople, but it surpasses that in 
some respects ; for St. Sophia was originally a Christian church, and changed into a mosque, 
while this of Delhi was originally built for the Moslems. 

As I entered, a thousand or more Mohammedans were prostrated in worship. There 
are times when five thousand may be seen here in the same attitude. Each stone of the 
floor is three feet long by one and one-half wide, and each worshiper has one of these slabs 
for himself while kneeling. The erection of this building required five thousand laborers 




(297j 



298 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

for six years. It is on a plateau of rock ; has four towers rising far into the heavens ; three 
great gateways inviting the world to come in and honor the memory of the prophet of 
many wives ; fifteen domes with spires gold-tipped, and six minarets. What a built-up 
immensity of white marble and red sandstone ! We passed to a corner of this mosque to 
see the relics of Mohammed. There are his slippers, much like ordinary slippers, except 
very aged. There, also, is the hair of Mohammed's moustache. You must not touch it, for 
it is very sacred, and has been carefully guarded on down through the centuries. There, 
also, is a stone bearing the foot-print of Mohammed, leading you to the conclusion that 
Mohammed must have had a very hard foot, or the stone must have been very soft. We 
did not stay any longer to examine that hair than we staid to examine the tooth of Buddha 
in Ceylon. We descended the forty marble steps by which we ascended, and took another 
look at this wonder of the world. As I thought what a brain the architect must have had 
who first built that mosque in his own imagination, and as I thought what an opulent ruler that 
must have been who gave the order for such vastness and symmetry, I was reminded of 
that which perfectly explained all. The architect who planned this was the same man who 
planned the Taj, namely, Austin de Bordeau, and the king who ordered the mosque con- 
structed was the king who ordered the Taj, namely. Shah Jehan. As this Grand Mogul 
ordered built the most splendid palace for the dead when he built the Taj at Agra, he here 
ordered built the most splendid palace of worship for the living at Delhi. See here what 
sculpture and architecture can accomplish. They link together the centuries. They suc- 
cessfully defy time. Two hundred and eighty years ago Austin de Bordeau and Shah Jehan. 
quit this life, but their work lives and bids fair to stand until the continents crack open, and 
hemispheres go down, and this planet showers other worlds with its ashes. 

I rejoice in all these big buildings, whether dedicated to Mohammed, or Brahma, or 
Buddha, or Confucius, or Zoroaster ; because as St. Sophia at Constantinople was a Christian 
church changed into a mosque, and will yet be changed back again, so all the mosques and 
temples of superstition and sin will yet be turned into churches. When India, and Ceylon, and 
China, and Japan are ransomed, as we all believe they will be, their religious structures will 
all be converted into Christian asylums, and Christian schools, and Christian libraries, and 
Christian churches. Built at the expense of superstition and sin, they will yet be dedicated 
to the Lord Almighty ! 

As that night we took the railroad train from the Delhi station and rolled out through, 
the city now living, over the vaster cities buried under this ancient capital, cities under 
cities, and our traveling servant had unrolled our bed, which consisted of a rug and two 
blankets and a pillow ; and as we were worn out with the sight-seeing of the day, and were 
roughly tossed on that uneven Indian railway, I soon fell into a troubled sleep, in which 
I saw and heard in a confused way the scenes and sounds of the mutiny of 1857, which at 
Delhi we had been recounting ; and now the rattle of the train seemed to turn into the 
rattle of musketry ; and now the light at the top of the car deluded me with the idea of a 
burning city ; and then the loud thump of the railroad brake was in dream mistaken for a 
booming battery ; and the voices at the different stations made me think I heard the loud 
cheer of the British at the taking of the Cashmere Gate ; and as we rolled over bridges the 
battles before Delhi seemed going on ; and as we went through dark tunnels I seemed to 
see the tomb of Humayun, in which the king of Delhi was hidden ; and in my dream I saw 
Lieutenant Renny, of the artillery, throwing shells which were handed him, their fuses 
burning ; and Campbell, and Reid, and Hope Grant covered with blood ; and Nicholson 
falling while rallying on the wall his wavering troops ; and I saw dead regiment fallen 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



299 



acrass dead regiment, and heard the rataplan of the hoofs of Hodson's Horse, and the dash 
of the Bengal Artillery, and the storming by the immortal Fourth Column ; and the 
rougher the Indian railway became, and the darker the night grew, the more the scenes that 
I had been studying at Delhi came on me in incubus. But the morning began to look 
through the window of our jolting rail-car, and the sunlight poured in on my pillow, and 
in my dreams I saw the bright colors of the English flag hoisted over Delhi, where the 
green banner of the Moslem had waved, and the voices of the wounded and dying seemed 
to be exchanged for the voices that welcomed soldiers home again. And as the morning 
light got brighter and brighter, and in my dream I mistook the bells at a station for a 
church bell hanging in a minaret, where a Mohammedan priest had mumbled his call to 
prayer, I seemed to hear a chant, whether by human or angelic voices in my dream I 
could not tell, but it was a chant about " Peace and good-will to men." And as the 
speed of the rail-train slackened, the motion of the car became so easy as we rolled along 
the track that it seemed to me that all the distress, and controversy, and jolting, and wars 
of the world had ceased ; and in my dream I thought we had come to the time when " The 
ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon 
their heads ; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." But how provoking it was that in 
the midst of this dream that started so roughly in the suburbs of battle-cursed Delhi, and 
had now under the morning light and lessening speed become so pleasant, the conductor 
pushed back the door of the rail-car and shouted : " All out for Jeypore ! " 




BIJDDHIST SACRED CAVE AND CARVED FIGURE OF GANDAURA, FORTV-FIVIC FI;ET IN LEXGTH. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



CITY OF ELEPHANTS. 



OHE first thing that strikes j'ou at Jeypore is the elephant. His ancestors were 
brought over from Ce5don and have been domesticated, and he here now does 
the office of the horse or the ox. A strange-looking being is the elephant as he 
passes up and down the streets of Jeypore. Now he is harnessed to a cart, now 
a group of laborers are on his back, or a company of pleasurists, although Americans would 
as soon think of hiring a canal- 
boat for a picnic. 

Jeypore is the most spirited 
city of India. It has street gas 
and electric lights. Its architec- 
ture is of peach-blow color. Its 
inhabitants are gay. More laughter 
rolls along its streets than is seen 
and heard elsewhere. Its main 
street is one hundred and eleven 
feet wide, and two miles long. 




SHIRA'S BUI,L, CARVED FROM SOLID ROCK, MYSORE. 
The bull is one of the sacred animals of Hindoo mythologj', statues of which are placed on the outside of temples of Siva, as it is 
believed by Brahmins that all journeys taken by the god are upon the back of that animal. The richest sculptured bull in 
India is illustrated above. Is it mere coincidence that the Egyptians venerated the bull (Apis) and that the Israelites worshiped a 
golden calf? 

and has a commingling to which nothing could be added. Chickens, pigeons, dogs, 
camels, donkeys, elephants, with here and there a muzzled leopard, to say nothing 
of the people dancing, chaffering, joking, running, lounging, fisticuffing. Right out on 

(300) 







IIt 



J 'ii 



>^ 



*^'* 




TAI.MACK ANli HIS SON ON THEIR WAV TO AMUKR. 



(.301) 



302 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



the street the people make shoes, and winnow wheat, and gin cotton, and spin thread, aud 
twist ropes, and print cotton goods, and sliave citizens (both shaver and shaved squat 
on the ground). 

While you are watching in most amused condition, there passes you with loud 
shout the forerunner of some dignitary, riding on gaily caparisoned horse, sword 
jingling at his side. We visited the stables of the Maharaja, or king, for in addition to 
owning several hundred elephants, he has two hundred and fifty horses. Each horse has a 
groom, who rattles off admiringly the pedigree of his charger, and sleeps in an opening 
right above his horse. Each horse has not only a halter, but each foot is tethered. Some 
of them were grand specimens, and looked well, harnessed or mounted ; but any day in 
Hyde Park, London, or Central Park, New York, or Prospect Park, Brooklyn, you can find 




THE PRINCE OF WAI,ES STARTING ON A HUNT. 



horses with more graceful arch of neck, and more brilliant flame of eye, and more beautiful 
round of limb, and more exquisite touches of color. 

The suburbs of Jeypore are worth a visit. The desert on one side is making strong 
invasion upon the city, and houses and gardens are being conqtiered by the sands driving 
in, until they are in some places forty or fifty feet deep. But you ride out a couple of miles 
in another direction, and you reach " The Temple of the Sun," standing on a hill three 
hundred and fifty feet high. The Temple is not as radiant as its name indicates, but the 
view from its steps is so far-reaching and striking that the city of Jeypore seems to throw its 
crowns of splendor to your feet. 

By all means visit the Zoological and Botanic Gardens. Here you see that interest- 
ing creature called the man-eater, the tiger who prefers human flesh, and nothing else 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 303 

roasted, or fried, or baked is so delicious that he will not prefer a man raw. These tigers 
have at times kept the neighborhood of Jeypore and of other cities in constant dread, for 
they will dare almost anything to get their favorite repast. Hunters dare not go after them, 
but pits are digged for the capture of these ferocious creatures, and they are left in these pits 
until exhausted with hunger and almost dead, then they can be safely taken out for the 
menageries. There is a tigress here who has the reputation of having eaten fifteen human 
beings. 

The impression that these tigers prefer human flesh above all else may, however, 
be inaccurate. An unarmed man is more easily captured than the brutes, the most of which 
have horn, or hoof, or tusk, or strength to resist ; and it may be that the man-eating tigers 
in choice of food ma)' consult economy of struggle quite as much as taste for human blood. 
But they are awful creatures to look at. I stirred them up in all the zoological gardens I 
visited. They bent every iron bar of the cage in effort to get at us. In the midst of a public 
garden covering seventy acres at Jeypore is a museum, and in it you find specimens of 
everything curious and admirable in art or industry, but more than the fine enamel-ware, 
and jewel-cases, and upholstery, and antique-ware that others were especially interested in, 
I was attracted by the jewels of wit, and wisdom, and kindness written in Hindoo language 
on the wall, and also their translations in English, such as : 

" The wise make failure equal to success." 

" Do naught to others which if done to thee 
Would cause thee pain ; this is the sum of duty." 

" He only does not live in vain, 
Who all the means within his reach 
Employs, his wealth, his thought, his speech, 
T' advance the good of other men. ' ' 

" Like threads of silver seen through crystal beads, 
Let love through good deeds show. ' ' 

" A man obtains a proper rule of action 
By looking on his neighbors as himself ' ' 

Before you leave Jeypore you will have to buy some memento in the shape of garnet 
jewels, or enamels, or shells, or umbrella, or chintzes, or ivory carvings, for the manufacture 
of which the city has world-wide fame. But you must be wide awake, or you will pay ten 
prices for something of little worth, and carry home that which some expert will discover, 
as soon as you are showing it, to be a bogus spoon, or bowl, or plate, or finger-ring. Many 
have found out afterward that there are things in Jeypore which look like rubies and 
emeralds, which are neither rubies nor emeralds. 

You will want to make your visit at Jeypore climacteric by seeing the palace of the 
Maharaja. The princes of Jeypore are said to have descended directly from the sun. What 
an ancestry, the King of Day ! While we must dispute that genealogical table, it is not 
apocryphal that there have been wonderful persons in the ancestral line of these princes. 
One of the most remarkable men of all time was the prince Jey Singh, who founded the 
city of Jeypore. In this and other cities he built five observatories and put in them instru- 
ments of his own invention, although he died one hundred and fifty years ago, and when 
astronomy was mi:ch younger than now. He patronized art. He refonned the world's 
calendar. He astounded all the nations that heard of his genius. I would rather have that 



304 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



man for an ancestor than the sun, for that is only a blast furnace on a large scale. For 
forty-four years did Jey Singh reign in India. 

There have also been remarkable women in this country. Fifteen thousand of them 
committed suicide after an unfortunate battle rather than come into the possession of a 
ruffian soldiery. The present Maharaja, now thirty-six years of age, was a poor exiled boy. 
but the previous ruler having no son adopted this exile, and the people proclaimed him 
Maharaja, and he is ruling well in a palace which is a bewitchment of beauty. It is made 
up of seven stories of resplendent architecture. When the draughtsman dreamed that 




BURMESE CARRIAGE AND PAIR. 

palace he must have been asleep in a garden, 'had his head on a pillow of roses, his face 
turned toward 'a summer sunset, the groves near-by filled with chant of bird orchestra. The 
eye climbs from marble step to latticed balcony, and from latticed balcony to oriel, and from 
oriel to arch, and from arch to roof, and then descends on ladder of all colors, and by stairs 
of perfect lines to imperial gardens of pomegranate and pineapple. What a transition for 
the exiled boy from a hut to a structure that seems built out of clouds, and flower gardens, 
and enchantments celestial and terrestrial ! 

But the Maharaja is himself not at all ethereal or fairy-like. Stout in body, a little 
under the average stature of men, face a pleasant dull, with affluence of beard from ear to 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 305 

ear and down under the lower jaw, while a mustache hovers over thick lips. He is a clever 
soul, both in the English and American sense of clever. The people like him, and when 
he moves in procession the populations run wild with enthusiasm, and even the elephants 
seem to give an applauding flap to their awkward ears. The military at his command are 
1000 artillerymen, 4500 cavalry, and 16,000 infantry, so that whether for purposes of warlike 
defence, or pomp parade, the Maharaja is not helpless. 

In the neighborhood of Jeypore is a depopulated city called Amber. The strange fact is. 
that a ruler abandoned his palaces at Amber and moved to Jeypore, and all the inhabitants 
of the city followed. Except here and there a house in Amber occupied by a hermit, the 
city is as silent a population as Pompeii or Herculaneum ; but those cities were emptied 
by volcanic disaster, while this city of Amber was vacated because Prince Jey Singh was 
told by a Hindoo priest that no city should be inhabited more than a thousand years, and so- 
the ruler one hundred and seventy years ago moved out himself, and all his people moved 
with him. 

You visit Amber on the back of an elephant. Permission obtained for your visit the . 
day before at Jeypore, an elephant is in waiting for you about six miles out to take you up 
the steeps to Amber. If you get seasick crossing the Atlantic, you will probably get 
elephant sick by the swaying of the monster as you ascend to the dead city of Amber. You 
pass through the awfully quiet streets, all the feet that trod them in the days of their activity 
having gone on the long journey, and the voices of business and gayety that sounded amid 
these abodes having many years ago uttered their last syllable. You pass by a lake cover- 
ing five hundred acres, where the rajahs used to sail in their pleasure boats, but alligators 
now have full possession, and you come to the abandoned palace, which is an enchant- 
ment. No more picturesque place was ever chosen for the residence of a monarch. The 
fortress above looks down upon this palace, and the palace looks down upon a lake. This 
monarchial abode may have had attractions when it was the home of royalty, which have 
vanished, but antiquity and the silence of many years, and opportunity to tread where once 
you would not have been permitted to tread, may be an addition quite equal to the sub- 
traction. 

I will not go far into a description of brazen doorway after brazen doorway, and carved 
room after carved room, and lead you under embellished ceiling after embellished ceiling, 
and through halls precious-stoned into wider halls precious-stoned. Why tire out your 
imagination with the particulars when you may sum up all by saying that on the slopes of 
that hill in India are pavilions deeply dyed, tasseled and arched ? the fire of colored gardens 
cooled by the snow of white architecture ; bath-rooms that refresh before your feet touch 
their marble ; birds in arabesque so natural to life, that while you cannot hear their voices 
you imagine you see the flutter of their wings while you are passing ; stoneware translu- 
cent ; walls pictured with hunting scene, and triumphal procession, and jousting party ; 
rooms that are called " Alcove of L,ight," and " Court of Honor," and " Hall of Victory ; " 
marble, white and black, like a mixture of morning and night ; alabaster, and lacquer- 
work, and mother-of-pearl : all that architecture, and sculpture, and painting, and horticul- 
ture can do when they put their genius together was done here in ages past, and much of 
their work still stands to' absorb and entrance archaeologist and sight-seer. 

But what a solemn and stupendous thing is an abandoned city. While many of the 
peoples of earth have no roof for their head, here is a whole city of roofs rejected. The 
sand of the desert was sufficient excuse for the disappearance of Heliopolis, and the waters 
of the Mediterranean Sea for the engulfment of Tyre, and the lava of Mount Vesuvius for 



3o6 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



the obliteration of Herculaneum ; but for the sake of nothing but a superstitious whim the 
■city of Amber is abandoned forever. Oh, wondrous India ! The discarded city of Amber 
is only one of the marvels which compel the uplifting hand of surprise from the day you 
■enter India until the day you leave it. Its flora is so aromatic and flamboyant ; its fauna so 
monstrous and savage ; its ruins so suggestive ; its idolatry so horrible ; its degradation so 
.-sickening ; its mineralogy so brilliant ; its splendors so irradiating ; its architecture so old, 
•so grand, so educational, so multipotent, that India will not be fully comprehended until 
science has made its last experiment, and exploration has ended its last journey, and the 
library of the world's literature has closed its last door, and Christianity has made its last 
achievement, and the Clock of Time has struck its last hour. 




SIR J. FAYRER, 

Hon. Physician to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, 
who accompanied the Prince ofWales, as his med- 
ical adviser, on his trip to India. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE FIRE WORSHIPERS. 



y y V E have seen the Parsees ! The prophet of the Parsees was Zoroaster of Persia. 
Mi I He was poet, and philosopher, and reformer, as well as religionist. His disci- 
1 I i pies thrived at first in Persia, but under Mohammedan persecution they retreated 
^"^"^^ to India, where I met them, and in addition to what I saw of them at their 
headquarters here, I had two weeks of association with one of the most learned and 
genial of their people on shipboard from Bombay to Brindisi. 

The Bible of the Parsees, or fire-worshipers as they are inaccurately called, is the 
Zend-Avesta, a collection of the strangest books that ever came into my hands. There were 
originally twenty-one volumes, but Alexander the Great, in a drunken fit set fire to a palace 
which contained some of them, and they went into ashes and forgetfulness. But there are 
more of their sacred volumes left than most people would have patience to read. There 

are many things in the re- 
ligion of the Parsees that 
suggest Christianity, and 
some of its doctrines are in 
accord with our own re- 
ligion. Zoroaster, who lived 
about fourteen hundred 
years before Christ, was a 
good man, suffered perse- 
cution for bis faith, and 
was assassinated while wor- 
shiping at an altar. He 
announced the theory " He 
is best who is pure of 
heart ! " and that there are 
two great spirits in the 
world, Ormuzd, the good 
spirit, and Ahriman, the 
bad spirit, and that all who 
do right are under the influ- 
ence of Ormuzd, and all who do wrong are under Ahriman ; that the Parsee must 
be born on the ground-floor of the house ; and must be buried from the ground floor ; that 
the dying man must have prayers said over him and a sacred juice given him to 
drink ; that the good at their decease go into eternal light, and the bad into eternal 
darkness; that having passed out of this life the soul lingers near the corpse three 
days in a Paradisaic state, enjoying more than all the nations of earth put together 
could enjoy, or in a Pandemoniac state, suffering more than all the nations put together 
could possibly suffer, but at the end of three days departing for its final destiny ; and 

(307) 




PARSEES' TOWER OF SILENCE, BOMBAY. 



3o8 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

that there will be a resurrection of the body. They are more careful than any other 
people about their ablutions, and they wash, and wash, and wash. They pay great 
attention to physical health, and it is a rare thing to see a sick Parsee. They do not 
smoke tobacco, for they consider that a misuse of fire. At the close of mortal life the 
soul appears at the Bridge Chinvat, where an angel presides, and questions the soul about 
the thoughts, and words, and deeds of its earthly state. Nothing, however, is more intense 
in the Parsee faith than the theory that the dead body is impure. A devil is supposed to 
take possession of the dead body. All who touch it are unclean and hence the strange style 
of obsequies. But here I must give three or four questions and answers from one of the 
Parsee catechisms : 

Question : Who is the most fortunate man in the world ? 

Anstver : He who is the most innocent. 

Question : Who is the most innocent man in the world ? 

Answer : He who walks in the path of God and shuns that of the devil. 

Question : Which is the path of God, and which that of the devil ? 

Aitswer : Virtue is the path of God, and vice that of the devil. 

Question : What constitutes virtue, and what vice ? 

Answer: Good thoughts, good words, and good deeds constitute virtue, and evil 
thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds constitute vice. 

Question : What constitute good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, and evil 
thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds ? 

Answer: Honesty, charity, and truthfulness constitute the former; and dishonesty, 
want of charity, and falsehood constitute the latter. 

And now the better to show you these Parsees, I tell you of two things I saw within a 
short time in Bombay, India. It was an afternoon of contrast. 

We started for Malabar Hill, on which the wealthy classes have their embowered homes, 
and the Parsees their strange Temple of the Dead. As we rode along the water's edge the 
sun was descending the sky, and a disciple of Zoroaster, a Parsee, was in lowly posture 
and with reverential gaze looking into the sky. He would have been said to have been 
worshiping the sun, as all Parsees are said to worship the fire. But the intelligent Parsee 
does not worship the fire. He looks upon the sun as the emblem of the warmth and light 
of the Creator. Looking at a blaze of light, whether on hearth, on mountain height, or in 
the sky, he can more easily bring to mind the glory of God : at least, so the Parsees tell me. 
Indeed, they are the pleasantest heathen I have met. They treat their wives as equals, while 
the Hindoos and Buddhists treat them as cattle ; although the cattle, and sheep, and swine 
are better off than most of the women of India. 

This Parsee on the roadside on our way to Malabar Hill was the only one of that 
religion I had ever seen engaged in worship. Who knows but that beyond the light of the 
sun on which he gazes he may catch a glimpse of the God who is Light, and " in whom 
there is no darkness at all ! " 

We passed on up through gates into the garden that surrounds the place where the 
Parsees dispose of their dead. This garden was given by Jamshidji Jijibhai, and is beautiful 
with flowers of all hue, and foliage of all styles of vein, and notch and stature. There is 
on all sides great opulence of fern and cypress. The garden is one hundred feet above the 
level of the sea. Not far from the entrance is a building where the mourners of the funeral 
procession go in to pray. A light is here kept burning year in and year out. We ascend 
the garden by some eight stone steps. The body of a deceased aged woman was being 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



309 



■carried in toward the chief "Tower of Silence." There are five of these towers. Several 
of them have not been used for a long while. Four persons, whose business it is to do this, 
carry in the corpse. They are followed by two men with long beards. The Tower of 
Silence, to which they come, cost $150,000, and is twenty-five feet high, and two hundred 
and seventy-six feet around, and without a roof. The four carriers of the dead and the two 
bearded men come to the door of the Tower, enter and leave the dead. There are three 




TOWER 0|:=.SlLET!rCE. 
VIEW OF THE INTETRIOR. 

TOWS of places for the dead : the outer row for the men, the middle row for the women, the 
inside row for the children. The lifeless bodies are left exposed as far down as the waist. 
As soon as the employes retire from the Tower of Silence, the vultures, now one, now two, 
■now many, swoop upon the lifeless form. These vultures fill the air with their dis- 
cordant voices. We saw them in long rows on the top of the white-washed wall of the 
Tower of Silence. In a few minutes they have taken the last particle of flesh from the 



3IO 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



bones. There had evidently been other opportunities for them that day, and some flew away 
as though surfeited. They sometimes carry away with them parts of a body, and it is 
no unusual thing for the gentlemen in their country-seats to have dropped into their door- 
yards a bone from the Tower of Silence. 

In the centre of this tower is a well, into which the bones are thrown after they are 
bleached. The hot sun, and the rainy season, and charcoal do their work of disintegration 
and disinfection, and then there are sluices that carry into the sea what remains of the dead. 







CAR OF JUGGERNAUT. 
Juggernaut is worshiped by Brahmius as Lord of the world. At the car festival this god is brought out and seated upon a car 
forty-one feet high, with fourteen enormous wheels, which are fantastically draped. The car is then drawn through the streets at the 
command of priests by faithful devotees, who shout, "Victory to Juggernaut." The stories told of people throwing themselves beneath 
the car wheels are fictions, the god being, in fact, described as the most merciful one in Hindoo mythology. 

The wealthy people of Malabar Hill have made strenuous efforts to have these strange 
towers removed as a nuisance, but they remain, and will, do doubt, for ages remain. 

I talked with a learned Parsee about these mortuary customs. He said, " I suppose 
you consider them very peculiar, but the fact is we Parsees reverence the elements of nature, 
and cannot consent to defile them. We reverence the fire, and therefore will not ask it to 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 311 

burn our dead. We reverence the water, and do not ask it to submerge our dead. We 
reverence the earth, and will not ask it to bury our dead. And so we let the vultures take 
them away." He confirmed me in the theory that the Parsees act on the principle that the 
dead are unclean. No one must touch such a body. The carriers of this " Tomb of 
Silence " must not put their hands on the form of the departed. They wear gloves lest some- 
how they should be contaminated. When the bones are to be removed from the sides of the 
tower and put in the well at the centre, they are touched carefully by tongs. Then these 
people beside have very decided theories about the democracy of the tomb. No such thing 
as caste among the dead. Philosopher and boor, the affluent and the destitute, must go 
through the same " Tower of Silence," lie down side by side with other occupants, have 
their bodies dropped into the same abyss, and be carried out through the same canal and 
float away on the same sea. No splendor of Necropolis. No sculpturing of mausoleum. 
No pomp of dome or obelisk. Zoroaster's teaching resulted in these "Towers of Silence." 
He wrote : " Naked you came into the world, and naked you must go out." 

As I stood at the close of day in this garden on Malabar Hill and heard the flap of the 
vultures' wings coming from their repast, the funeral custom of the Parsee seemed horrible 
beyond compare, and yet the dissolution of the human body by any mode is awful, and the 
beaks of these fowl are probably no more repulsive than the wonns of the body devouring 
the sacred human form in cemeteries. Nothing but the resurrection day can undo the awful 
work of death, whether it now be put out of sight by cutting spade or flying wing. 

Starting homeward, we soon were in the heart of the city, and saw a building all a-flash 
with lights and resounding with merry voices. It was a Parsee wedding, in a building erected 
especially for the marriage ceremony. We came to the door and proposed to go in, but at 
first were not permitted. They saw we were not Parsees, and that we were not even natives. 
So very politely they halted us on the doorsteps. This temple of nuptials was chiefly 
occupied by women, their ears, and necks, and hands a-flame with jewels or imitations of 
jewels. By pantomime and gesture, as we had no use of their vocabulary, we told them we 
were strangers and were curious to see by what process Parsees were married. Gradually 
we worked our way inside the door. The building and the surroundings were illumined by 
hundreds of candles in glasses and lanterns, in unique and grotesque holdings. Conversa- 
tion ran high, and laughter bubbled over, and all was gay. Then there was a sound of an 
advancing band of music, but the instruments for the most part were strange to our ears 
and eyes. Louder and louder were the outside voices, and the wind and stringed instru- 
ments, until the procession halted at the door of the temple and the bridegroom mounted 
the steps. Then the music ceased, and all the voices were still. The mother of the bride- 
groom, with a platter loaded with aromatics and articles of food, confronted her son and 
began to address him. Then she took from the platter a bottle of perfume and sprinkled 
his face with the redolence. All the while speaking in a droning tone, she took from the 
platter a handful of rice, throwing some of it on his head, spilling some of it on his shoulder, 
pouring some of it on his hands. She took from the platter a cocoanut and waved it about 
his head. She lifted a garland of flowers and threw it over his neck, and a bouquet of flowers 
and put it in his hand. Her part of the ceremony completed, the band resumed its music, 
and through another door the bridegroom was conducted into the centre of the building. 
The bride was in the room, but there was nothing to designate her. " Where is the bride ? " 
I said, " where is the bride ? " After a while she was made evident. The bride and groom 
were seated on chairs opposite each other. A. white curtain was dropped between them sO' 
that they could not see each other. Then the attendants put their arms under this curtain. 



312 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



look a long rope of linen and wound it around the neck of the bride and the groom, in 
token that they were to be bound together for life. Then some silk strings were wound 
around the couple, now around this one, now around that. Then the groom threw a hand- 
ful of rice across the curtain on the head of the bride, and the bride responded by 
throwing a handful of rice across the curtain on the head of the groom. Thereupon the 
•curtain dropped and the bride's chair was removed and put beside that of the groom. 
Then a priest of the Parsee religion arose and faced the couple. Before the priest was 
placed a platter of rice. He began to address the young man and woman. We could not 
hear a word, but we understood just as well as if we had heard. Ever and anon he punc- 
tuated his ceremony by a handful of rice, which he picked up from the platter and flung 
now toward the groom and now toward the bride. T^^ ceremony went on interminably. 
We wanted to hear the conclusion, but were told that the ceremony would go on for a long 
while ; indeed, that it would not conclude until two o'clock in the morning, and this was 
only between seven and eight o'clock in the evening. There would be a recess after awhile 
in the ceremony, but it would be taken up again in earnest at half-past twelve. We enjoyed 
^vhat we had seen, but felt incapacitated for six more hours of wedding ceremony. Silently 




A PARSEE WEDDING CERE^Il.l^V. 

-wishing the couple a happy life in each other's companionship, we pressed our way through 
the throng of congratulatory Parsees. All of them seemed bright and appreciative of the 
•occasion. The streets otitside joyously sympathized with the transactions inside. 

We rode on toward our hotel wishing that marriage in all India might be as much 
honored as in the ceremony we had that evening witnessed at the Parsee wedding. The 
Hindoo women are not so married. They are simply cursed into the conjugal relation. Many 
of the girls are married at seven and ten years of age, and some of them are grandmothers at 
thirty. They can never go forth into the sunlight with their faces uncovered. They must 
■stay at home. All styles of maltreatment are theirs. If they become Christians they become 
■outcasts. 

A missionary told me in India of a Hindoo woman who became a Christian. She 
had nine children. Her husband was over seventy years of age. And yet at her 
•Christian baptism he told her to go, and she went out, homeless. As long as woman is 
•down, India will be down. No nation was ever elevated except through the elevation of 
■woman. Parsee marriage is an improvement on Hindoo marriage ; but Christian marriage 
is an improvement on Parsee marriage. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



3^3 



A fellow-traveler in India told me he had been writing to his home in England trying- 
to get a law passed that no white woman could be legally married in India until she had 
been there six months. Admirable law would that be ! If a white woman saw what 
married life with a Hindoo is she would never undertake it. Off with the thick and ugly 
veil from woman's face ! Off with the crushing burdens from her shoulder ! Nothing but 
the Gospel of Jesus Christ will ever make life in India what it ought to be. 

But what an afternoon of contrast in Bombay we experienced ! From the Temple of 
Silence to the Temple of Hilarity ! From the vultures to the doves ! From mourning to 
laughter ! From gathering shadows to gleaming lights ! From obsequies to wedding ! 




COLONNADE — MAHABLESHWAR. 

But how much of all our lives is made up of such opposites. I have carried in the same 
pocket, and read from them in the same hour, the liturgy of the dead and the ceremony of 
espousals. And so the tear meets the smile, and the dove meets the vulture. 

Thus I have set before you the best of all religions of the heathen world, and I have 
done so in order that you might come to higher appreciation of the glorious religion which 
has put its benediction over us and over Christendom. 

Compare the absurdities and mummeries of heathen marriage with the plain, " I will," 
of Christian marriage, the hands joined in pledge " till death do you part." Compare 



314 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



the doctrine that the dead vaay not be touched, with as sacred, and tender, and loving a kiss 
as is ever given, the last kiss of lips that never again will speak to us. Compare the narrow 
Bridge Chinvat over which the departing Parsee soul must tremblingly cross, to the wide 
open gate of heaven through which the departing Christian soul may triumphantly enter. 
Compare the twenty-one books of the Zend-Avesta of the Parsee, which even the scholars of 
the earth despair of understanding, with our Bible, so much of it as is necessary for our 
salvation in language so plain that " a wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein." 
•Compare the " Tower of Silence " with its vultures at Bomba}- with the " Greenwood of 
Brooklyn " with its sculptured angels of resurrection. And bow 3'ourself in thanksgiving 
and prayer as you realize that if at the battles of Marathon and Salamis, Persia had 
triumphed over Greece, instead of Greece triumphing over Persia, Parseeism, which was the 
national religion of Persia, might have covered the earth, and you and I instead of sitting 
in the noonday light of our glorious Christianity might have been groping in the depress- 
ing shadows of Parseeism, a religion as inferior to that which is our inspiration in life, and 
our hope in death, as Zoroaster of Persia was inferior to our radiant and superhuman 
Christ, to whom be honor and glory and dominion and victory and song, world without end. 




INSPECTION DAY AT AN EAST INDI.\ PENITENTIARY. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



UNDERSIDE OF INDIA. 



/"""^vf OMETHING had we seen with miner's candle of the underside of Australia, as 
^^^^^i> at Gimpie ; and something had we seen at different times, with guide's torch, of 
JL J the underside of America, as in Mammoth Cave ; but we are now to see something 
•^ of the underside of India as we enter one of the sacred cellars of India, com- 

monly called the Elephanta Caves. We had it all to ourselves, the steam yacht that was to 
take us about fifteen miles over the harbor of Bombay, and between enchanted islands, and 
along shores whose curves, and gulches, and pictured rocks gradually prepare the mind for 
appreciation of the most unique spectacle in India. The morning had been full of thunder, 
and lightning, and deluge, but the atmospheric agitations had ceased, and the cloudy ruins 
of the storm were piled up in the heavens, huge enough and darkly purple enough to make 
the skies as grandly picturesque as the earthly scenery amid which we moved. After an 
hour's cutting through the waters we came to the long pier reaching from the island called 

Elephanta. It is an island 
small of girth, but six hun- 
dred feet high. It declines 
into the marshes of man- 
grove. But the whole island 
is one tangle of foliage and 
verdure : convolvulus creep- 
ing the ground, morasses 
climbing the rocks, vines 
sleeving the long arms of 
the trees, red flowers here 
and there in the woods, like 
incendiary's torch trying to 
set the groves on fire, cactus 
and acacia vying as to which 
can most charm the be- 
holder, tropical bird meet- 
ing parti-colored butterfly 
in jungles planted the same 
summer the world was born. 
We stepped out of the boat amid enough natives to afford all the help we needed for land- 
ing and guidance. You can be carried by coolies in an easy chair, or you can walk, if you 
are blessed with two stout limbs, which the Psalmist evidently lacked, or he would not 
have so depreciated them, when he said : " The L,ord taketh no pleasure in the legs of 
a man." We passed up some stone steps, and between the walls we saw awaiting us a 
gentle cobra, one of those snakes which greet the traveler at times when he has no time to 
attend to their courtesies. Two of the guides left the cobra dead by the wayside. They 
must have been Mohammedans, for Hindoos never kill that sacred reptile. 

(315) 




THE ENTRANCE TO THE ELEPHANTA CAVES. 



3i6 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



And now we come near the famous temple, hewn from one rock of porphyry, at least 
eight hundred years ago. On either side of the chief temple is a chapel, these cut out of 
the same stone. So vast was the undertaking, and to the Hindoos was so great the human 
impossibility that they say the gods scooped out this structure from the rock, and carved 
the pillars, and hewed into shape its gigantic idols, and dedicated it to all the grandeurs. 
We climb many stone steps before we get to the gateways. The entrance to this temple 
has sculptured doorkeepers leaning on sculptured devils. How strange ! But I have seen 
doorkeepers of churches and auditoriums who seemed to be leaning on the devils of bad 
ventilation and asphyxia. Doorkeepers ought to be leaning on the angels of health, and 
comfort, and life. All the sextons and janitors of the earth who have spoiled sermons and 
lectures, and poisoned the lungs of audiences by inefficiency ought to visit this cave of 
Elephanta and beware of what these doorkeepers are doing, when instead of leaning on the 
angelic they lean on the demoniac. In these Blephanta Caves everything is on a Sam- 

sonian and Titanian scale. 
With chisels that were 
dropped from nerveless 
hands at least eight centuries 
ago, the forms of the gods 
Brahma, and Vishnu, and 
Siva were cut into, the ever- 
lasting rock. Siva is here 
represented by a figure six- 
teen feet nine inches high, 
one-half man and one-half 
woman. Run a line from 
the centre of the forehead 
straight to the floor of the 
rock, and you divide this 
idol into masculine and 
feminine. Admired as this 
idol is by many, it was to me 
about the worst thing that 
was ever cut into porphyry, 
perhaps because there is hardly anything on earth I so much dislike as a being half man 
and half woman. Do be one or the other, my reader. Man is admirable, and woman is 
admirable, but either in flesh or trap rock a compromise of the two is hideous. Save us 
from effeminate men and masculine women ! 

Yonder is the King Ravana worshiping. Yonder is the sculptured representation, 
of the marriage of Shiva and Parhati. Yonder is Daksha, the son of Brahma, born from 
the thumb of his right hand. He had sixty daughters. How highly blessed he was ! 
Seventeen of those daughters were married to Kasyapa and became the mothers of the 
human race. Yonder is a god with three heads. The centre god has a crown wound with 
necklaces of skulls. The right hand god is in a paroxysm of rage, with forehead of snakes, 
and in its hand is a cobra. The left hand god has pleasure in all its features and the hand 
holds a flower. But there are gods and goddesses in all directions. The chief temple of 
this rock is one hundred and thirty feet square and has twenty-six pillars rising to the roof. 
After the conquerors of other lands, and the tourists from all lands have chipped, and defaced, 




A WAI<I, INSIDE THE ELEPHANTA CAVES. 




(317) 



3i8 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

and blasted, and carried away curios and mementoes for museums and homes, there are 
enough entrancements left to detain one, unless he is cautious, until he is down with some 
of the malarias which encompass this island, or gets bitten by some of the snakes. Yea, I 
feel the chilly dampness of this place, and must leave this congress of gods, this pandemo- 
nium of demons, this pantheon of Indian deities, and come to the steps and look off upon 
the waters which roll and flash around the steam yacht that is waiting to return us to 
Bombay. As we stepped aboard, our mind filled with the idols of the Elephanta Caves, I 
was impressed as never before with the thought that man must have a religion of some 
kind, even if he has to contrive one himself, and he must have a god, even though he make 
it with his own hand. I rejoice to know the day will come when the one God of the 
universe will be acknowledged throughout India. 

That evening of our return to Bombay I visited the Young Men's Christian Association 
with the same appointments that you find in the Young Men's Christian Associations of 
Europe and America, and the night after that I addressed a throng of native children who 
are in the schools of the Christian missions. Christian universities gather under their wing 
of benediction a host of the young men of this country. Bombay and Calcutta, the two 
great commercial cities of India, feel the elevating power of an aggressive Christianity. 
Episcopalian liturgy, and Presbyterian Westminster Catechism, and Methodist anxious-seat, 
and Baptist waters of consecration now stand where once basest idolatries had undisputed 
sway. The work which shoemaker Carey inaugurated at Serampore, India, translating the 
Bible into forty different dialects, and leaving his worn-out body amid the natives whom he 
had come to save, and going up into the heavens from which he can better watch all the 
field — that work will be completed in the salvation of the millions of India : and beside 
him, gazing from the same high places, stand Bishop Heber, and Alexander Duff, and John 
Scudder, and Mackay, who fell at Delhi, and Moncrieff, who fell at Cawnpore, and Pole- 
hampton, who fell at Lucknow, and Freeman, who fell at Futtyghur, and all heroes and 
heroines who, for Christ's sake, lived and died for the Christianization of India : and their 
heaven will not be complete until the Ganges that washes the ghats of heathen temples 
shall roll between churches of the living God, and the trampled womanhood of Hindooism 
shall have all the rights purchased by Him, who amid the cuts and stabs of His own assassina- 
tion, cried out : " Behold thy mother ! " and from Bengal Bay to Arabian Ocean, and from 
the Himalayas to the coast of Coromandel there be lifted hosannas to Him who died to 
redeem all nations. In that day Elephanta Cave will be one of the places where idols are 
" cast to the moles and the bats." If any clergyman asks me, as an unbelieving minister of 
religion once asked the Duke of Wellington, " Do you not think that the work of convert- 
ing the Hindoos is all a fanatical farce?" I answer him as Wellington answered the unbe- 
lieving minister : " Look to your marching orders, sir ! " Or if any one having joined in the 
Gospel attack feels like retreating, I say to him, as General Havelock said to a retreating 
regiment, " The enemy are in front, not in the rear," and leading them again into the fight, 
though two horses had been shot under him. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



51' 



THE PYRAMID. 

'E had on a bright and beautiful morning landed in Africa. Amid the howling- 
boatmen at Alexandria we had come ashore and taken the rail train for Cairo, 
Egypt, along the banks of the most thoroughly harnessed river of all the world 
— the river Nile. We had, at even-tide, entered the city of Cairo, the city where 
Christ dwelt while staying in Egypt during the Herodic persecution. It was our first night 
in Egypt. No destroying angel sweeping through, as once, but all the stars were out, and 
the skies were filled with angels of beauty and angels of light, and the air was as balmy as 
an American June. The next morning we were early awake and at the window, looking 
upon palm trees in full glory of leafage, and upon gardens of fruits and flowers at the very 
season when our homes far away are canopied by bleak skies and the last leaf of the forest 
has gone down in the equi- 
noctials. But how can I 
describe the thrill of ex- 
pectation, for to-day we 
are to see what all the 
world has seen or wants 
to see — the Pyramids ! We 
are mounted for an hour 
and a half's ride. We pass 
on amid bazaars stuffed 
with rugs and carpets, and 
curious fabrics of all sorts 
from Smyrna, from Al- 
giers, from Persia, from 
Ttirkey, and through 
streets where we meet 
people of all colors and all 
garbs, carts loaded with 
garden productions, 
priests in gowns, women in black veils, Bedouins in long and seemingly superfluous apparel. 
Janissaries in jacket of embroidered gold — out and on toward the Great Pyramid ; for though 
there are sixty-nine pyramids still standing, the pyramid at Gizeh is the monarch of pyramids. 
We meet camels grunting under their load, and see buffaloes on either side, browsing in pasture 
fields. The road we travel is for part of the way under clumps of acacia, and by long rows 
of sycamore and tamarisk, but after a while it is a path of rock and sand, and we find we 
have reached the margin of the desert, the great gloomy desert, and we cry out to the drago- 
man as we see a huge pile of rock looming in sight: "Dragoman, what is that?" His 
answer is, " The Pyramid," and then it seemed as if we were living a century every minute. 
Our thoughts and emotions were too rapid and intense for utterance, and we ride on in 

(319) 




SUEZ CANAL AND SUEZ TOWN. 



320 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



silence until we come to the foot of the pyramid spoken of in the Bible, the oldest structure 
in all the earth, four thousand years old at least. Here it is. We stand under the shadow 
of a structure that shuts out all the earth and all the sky, and we look up and strain our 
-vision to appreciate the distant top, and are overwhelmed while we cry, " The Pyramid ! 
The Pyramid ! " ■ 

I had started that morning with the determination of ascending the pyramid. One of 
my chief objects in going to Egypt was not only to see the base of that granitic wonder, but 
to stand on the top of it. Yet the nearer I came to this eternit)' in stone the more my 




the; port of ismaiwa, on thB suez canai.. 

■determination was shaken. Its altitude to me was simply appalling. A great height has 
always been to me a most disagreeable sensation. As we dismounted at the base of the pyra- 
mid I said, " Others may go up it, but not I. I will satisfy myself with a view from the base. 
The ascent of it would be to me a foolhardy undertaking." But after I had given up all 
idea of ascending, I found my daughter was determined to go, and I could not let her go 
with strangers, and I changed my mind and we started with guides. It cannot be done 
without these helpers. Two or three times foolhardy men have attempted it alone, but 
their bodies came tumbling down unrecognizable and lifeless. Each person in our party 
liad two or three guides or helpers. One of them unrolled his turban and tied it around my 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



321 



waist, and he held the other end of the turban as a matter of safety. Many of the blocks 
of stone are four or five feet high and beyond any ordinary human stride unless assisted. 
But, two Arabs to pull and two Arabs to push, I found myself rapidly ascending from height 
to height, and on, to altitudes terrific, and at last at the tip top we found ourselves on a 
level space of about thirty feet square. Through clearest atmosphere we looked off upon 
the desert, and the Sphinx with its features of everlasting stone, and yonder upon the min- 
arets of Cairo glittering in the sun, and yonder upon Memphis in ruins, and off upon the 
wreck of empires and the battlefields of ages, a radius of view enough to fill the mind and 
overwhelm one's entire being. 

After looking around for a while, and a kodak had pictured the group, we descended. 
The descent was more trying than the ascent, for climbing you need not see the depths 
beneath, but coming down it was impossible not to see the abysms below. But two Arabs 
ahead to help us down, 
and two Arabs to hold 
us back, we were low- 
ered, hand below hand, 
until the ground was 
invitingly near, and 
amid the jargon of the 
Arabs we were safely 
landed. 

I said the domi- 
nant color of the pyra- 
mid was gray, but in 
certain lights it seems 
to shake off the gray of 
centuries and become 
a blonde, and the silver 
turns to the golden. It 
covers thirteen acres of 
ground. What an an- 
tiquity ! It was at least 
two thousand years old 
when the baby Christ 
was carried within 

sight of it by His fugitive parents, Joseph and Mary. The storms of forty centuries have 
drenched it, bombarded it, shadowed it, flashed upon it, but there it stands ready to take 
another forty centuries of atmospheric attack if the world should continue to exist. 
The oldest buildings of the earth are juniors to this great senior of the centuries. 
Herodotus says that for ten years preparations were being made for the building of this 
pyramid. It has eighty-two million one hundred and eleven thousand cubic feet of 
masonry. One hundred thousand workmen at one time toiled in its erection. To 
bring the stone from the quarries a causeway sixty feet wide was built. The top stones 
were lifted by machinery such as the world knows nothing of to-day. It is seven hundred 
and forty-six feet each side of the square base. The structure is four hundred and 
fifty feet high, higher than the cathedrals of Cologne, Strasburg,' Rouen, St. Peter's and St. 
Paul's. No surprise to me that it was put at the head of the Seven Wonders of the World. 




GREAT PYRAMID — SPHINX. 



322 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



It has a subterraneous room of red granite called the " King's Chamber," and another room 
called the " Queen's Chamber," and the probability is that there are other rooms yet unex- 
plored. The evident design of the architect was to make these rooms as inaccessible as 
possible. After all the work of exploration and all the digging and blasting, if you would 
enter these subterraneous rooms you must go through a passage only three feet eleven 
inches high and less than four feet wide. A sarcophagus of red granite stands down under 
this mountain of masonry. The sarcophagus could not have been carried in after the pyra- 
mid was built. It must have been put there before the structure was reared. Probably in 
that sarcophagus once lay a wooden coffin containing a dead king, but time has destroyed 
the coffin and destroyed the last vestige of human remains. 

I wonder not that this mountain of limestone and red granite has been the fascination 
of scholars, of scientists, of intelligent Christians in all ages. Sir John Herschel, the 

astronomer, said 
he thought it had 
astronomical sig- 
nificance. The 
wise men who ac- 
companied Napo- 
leon's army into 
Egypt went into 
profound study of 
the pyramid. In 
1865 Professor 
Smyth and his 
wife lived in the 
empty tombs near 
by the pyramid 
that they might be 
as continuously as 
possible close to 
the pyramid, 
which they were 
investigating. 
The pyramid, 
built more than 
four thousand 
concluded it must 
years to fine archi- 




POMPEY'S PILLAR, ALEXANDRIA. 



years ago, being a complete geometrical figure, wise men have 
have been divinely constructed. Man came through thousands of 
tecture, to music, to painting, but this was perfect at the world's start, and God must 
have directed it. All astronomers and geometricians and scientists say that it was 
scientifically and mathematically constructed before science and mathematics were born. 
From the inscriptions on the pyramid, from its proportions, from the points of the com- 
pass recognized in its structure, from the direction in which its tunnels run, from the 
relative position of the blocks that compose it, scientists. Christians and infidels have 
demonstrated that the being who planned this pyramid must have known the world's 
sphericity, and that its motion was rotatory, and how many miles it was in diameter and 
circumference, and how many tons the world weighs, and knew at what point in the 




[y-i) 



324 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



heavens certain stars would appear at certain periods of time. Not in the four thousand 
years since the putting up of that pyramid has a single fact in astronomy or mathematics 
been found to contradict the wisdom of that structure. Yet they had not at the age when 
the pyramid was started an astronomer or an architect or a mathematician worth mention- 
ing. Who then planned the pyramid ? Who superintended its erection ? Who from its 
first foundation stone to its capstone erected everything? It must have been God. Isaiah 
■was right when he said : " A pillar shall be at the border of the land of Egypt and it shall 
be for a sign and a witness." The pyramid is God's first Bible. Hundreds, if not thousands, 
of years, before the first line of the Book of Genesis was written, the lesson of the pyramid 
was written. 

Well, of what is this Cyclopean masonry a sign and a witness ? Among other things, 
of the prolongation of human work compared with the brevity of human life. In all the 
four thousand years this pyramid has lost only eighteen feet in width, one side of its square 
at the base changed only from seven hundred and sixty-four feet to seven hundred and forty- 
six feet, and the most of that eighteen feet taken off by architects to furnish stone for build- 
ing in the city of Cairo. The 
men who constructed the 
pyramid worked at it only a 
few years and then put down 
the trowel and the compass 
and the square, and lowered 
the derrick which had lifted 
the ponderous weights ; but 
forty centuries has their work 
stood, and it will be good for 
forty centuries more. All 
Egypt has been shaken by 
terrible earthquakes and 
cities have been prostrated 
or swallowed, but that pyra- 
mid has defied all volcanic 
• paroxysms. It has looked 
upon some of the greatest battles ever fought since the world stood. Where are the men 
who constructed it? Their bodies gone to dust and even the dust scattered. Even the 
sarcophagus in which the king's mummy may have slept is empty. 

So men die but their work lives on. We are all building pyramids, not to last four 
thousand years, but forty thousand, forty million, forty trillion, forty quadrillion, forty quin- 
tillion. For a while we wield the trowel, or pound with the hammer, or measure with the 
yardstick, or write with the pen, or experiment with the scientific battery, or plan with the 
brain, and for a while the foot walks and the eye sees, and the ear hears and the tongue 
speaks. All the good words or bad words we speak are spread out into one layer for a pyra- 
mid. All the kind deeds or malevolent deeds we do are spread out into another layer. All 
the Christian or unchristian example we set is spread out in another layer. All the indirect 
influences of our lives are spread out in another layer. Then the time soon comes when we 
put down the implement of toil and pass away, but the pyramid stands. The twentieth 
century will not rock it down, nor the thirtieth century nor the one hundredth century. 
The earthquake that rocks this world to pieces will not stop our influence for good or evil. 









.--*lte^ 








msm: 


^ 


^ % 

c 



iRAVAN TO MECl 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



325 



You modestly say, " That is true in regard to the great workers for good or evil, and of 
gigantic geniuses, Miltonian, or Talleyrandian, but not of me, for I live and work on a 
small scale." My reader, remember that those who built the pyramids were common 
workmen. Not one of them could lift one of those great stones. It took a dozen of them 
to lift one stone, and others just wielded a trowel, clicking it on the hard edge or smoothing 
the mortar between the layers. One hundred thousand men toiled on those sublime eleva- 
tions. Cheops did not build the pyramid. Some master mason in the world's twilight did not 
build the pyramid. One hundred thousand men built it, and perhaps from first to last two 
hundred thousand men. So with the pyramids now rising, pyramids of evil or pyramids of 
good. The pyramid of drunken- 
ness rising ever since the time 
when Noah got drunk on wine, 
although there was at his time 
such a superabundance of water. 
All the saloonists of the ages add- 
ing their layers of ale casks and 
wine pitchers and rum jugs until 
the pyramid overshadows the 
Great Sahara Desert of desolated 
homes, and broken hearts and 
destroyed eternities. And as the 
pyramid still rises, layers of 
human skulls piled on top of 
human skulls and other moun- 
tains of human bones to whiten 
the peaks reaching unto the 
heavens, hundreds of thousands 
of people are building that pyra- 
mid. So with the pyramid of 
righteousness. Multitudes of 
hands are toiling on the steeps, 
hands infantile, hands octoge- 
narian, masculine hands, female 
hands, strong hands, weak hands. 
Some clanging a trowel, some 
pulling a rope, some measuring 
the sides. Layers of psalm books 
on top of layers of sermons. Layers of prayers on top of layers of holy sacrifice. And 
hundreds of thousands coming down to sleep their last sleep, but other hundreds of 
thousands going up to take their places, and the pyramids will continue to rise until the 
millennial morning gilds the completed work, and the toilers on these heights shall take 
off their aprons and throw down their trowels, crying, " It is finished." 

Your business and mine is not to build a pyramid, but to be one of the hundreds of 
thousands who shall ring a trowel, or pull a rope, or turn the crank of a derrick, or cry 
" yo heave ! " while lifting another block to its elevation. Though it be seemingly a small 
work and a brief work, it is a work that shall last forever. In the last day many a nian 
and woman whose work has never been recognized on earth will come to a special honor. 




DR. TAI^MAGE ON THE SUMMIT OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. 



326 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



I rejoice that all the thousands who have been toiling on the pyramid of righteousness will 
at last be recognized and rewarded — the mother who brought her children to Christ, the 
Sabbath teacher who brought her class to the knowledge of the truth, the unpretending 
man who saved a soul. Then the trowel will be more honored than the sceptre. As a 
great battle was going on the soldiers were ordered to the front and a sick man jumped out 
of an ambulance in which he was being carried to the hospital. The surgeon asked him 
what he meant by getting out of the ambulance when he was sick and almost ready to die. 
The soldier answered, " Doctor, I am going to the front ; I would rather die on the field 
than die in an ambulance." Thank God, if we cannot do much we can do a little. 




GREAT PYRAMID OF CHEOPS. 



The pyramid is a sign and a witness that big tombstones are not the best way of keep- 
ing one's self affectionately remembered. This pyramid and sixty-nine other pyramids still 
standing were built for sepulchres, all this great pile of granite and limestone by which we 
stand to-day, to cover the memory of a dead king. It was the great Westminster Abbey of 
the ancients. Some say that Cheops was the king who built this pyramid, but it is uncer- 
tain. Who, pray, was Cheops? All that the world knows 'about him could be told in a 
few sentences. The only thing certain is that he was bad and that he shut up the temples 
of worship, and that he was hated so that the Egyptians were glad when he was dead. 
This pyramid of rock seven hundred and forty feet each side of the square base, and four 
hundred and fifty feet high wins for him no respect. If a bone of his arm or foot had been 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



327 



found in the sarcophagus beneath the pyramid, it would have excited no more veneration 
than the skeleton of a camel bleaching on the Libyan desert ; yea, less veneration, for when 
I saw the carcass of a camel by the roadside on the way to Memphis, I said to myself, " poor 
thing, I wonder of what it died." We say nothing against the marble or the bronze of the 
necropolis. IvCt all that sculpture and florescence and arborescence can do for the places of 
the dead be done, if means will allow it. But if after one is dead there is nothing left to 
remind the world of him but some pieces of stone, there is but little left. Some of the 
finest monuments are over people who amounted to nothing while they lived, while some of 
the worthiest men and women have not had above them a stone big enough to tell their name. 




CAKE VENDORS AT CAIRO, EGYPT. 

Joshua, the greatest warrror the world ever saw, no monument ; Moses, the greatest lawyer 
that ever lived, no monument ; Paul, the greatest preacher that ever lived, no monument ; 
Christ, the Saviour of the world and the rapture of heaven, no monument. A pyramid 
over scoundrelly Cheops, but only a shingle with a lead pencil epitaph over many a good 
man's grave. Some of the finest obituaries have been printed about the worst rascals. To- 
day at Brussels there is a pyramid of flowers on the grave of Boulanger, the notorious 
libertine. Yet it is natural to want to be remembered. 

While there seems to be no practical use for post-mortem consideration later than the 
time of one's great grand-children, yet no one wants to be forgotten as soon as the obsequies 



328 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



are over. This pj'ramid, which Isaiah says is a sign and a witness, demonstrates that 
neither limestone nor red granite are competent to keep one affectionately remembered ; 
neither can bronze ; neither can Parian marble ; neither can Aberdeen granite do the work. 
But there is something out of which to build an everlasting monument and that will keep 
one freshly remembered four thousand years ; yea, for ever and ever. It does not stand in 
marble yards. It is not to be purchased at mourning stores. Yet it is to be found in every 
neighborhood, plenty of it, inexhaustible quantities of it. It is the greatest stuff in the 
universe to build monuments out of I refer to the memories of those to whom we can do a 
kindness, the memories of those whose struggles we may alleviate, the memories of those 
whose souls we may save. All around Cairo and Memphis there are the remains of pyramids 
that have gone down under the wearing away of time, and the Great Pyramid, of which Isaiah 

speaks, will vanish if the 
world lasts long enough ; and 
if the world does not last, 
then with the earth's dissolu- 
tion the p3'ramid will also dis- 
solve. But the memories of 
those with whom we asso- 
ciate are indestructible. They 
will be more vivid the other 
aide of the grave than this 
side. It is possible for me to 
do you a good and for you 
to do me a good that will be 
vivid in memory as many 
years after the world is burned 
up as all the sands of the sea- 
shore, and all the leaves of the 
forest, and all the grass blades 
of the field, and all the stars 
of heaven added together, and 
that aggregate multiplied by 
all the figures that all the 
bookkeepers of all time ever 
wrote. That desire to be re- 
membered after we are gone is a divinely implanted desire and not to be crushed out, but, 
I implore you, seek something better than the immortalization of rock, or bronze, or 
book. Put yourself into, the eternity of those whom you help for both worlds, this 
and the next. Comfort a hundred souls and there will be through all the cycles of eternity 
at least a hundred souls that will be your monuments. A prominent member of my 
church was brought to God by some one saj'ing to her at the church door at the close 
of service, " Come again ! " Will it be possible for that one so invited to forget the inviter ? 
A minister passing along the street every da}' looked up and smiled to a baby in the win- 
dow. The father and mother wondered who it was that thus pleasantl}' greeted their child. 
They found out that he was a pastor of a church. They said, " We must go and hear him 
preach." They went and heard him and both were converted to God. Will there be any 
power in fifty million years to erase from the souls of those parents the memory of 




INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE DEXDERAH. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



329 



that man who by his friendliness brought them to God ? Matthew Cranswick, an evange- 
list, said that he had the names of two hundred souls saved through his singing the hymn, 
" Arise, my soul, arise ! " Will any of those two hundred souls in all eternity forget 
Matthew Cranswick ? Will any of the four hundred and seventy-nine women and children 
imprisoned at Lucknow, India, waiting for massacre by the Sepoys, forget Havelock and 
Outran, and Sir David Beard, who broke in and effected their rescue ? To some of you who 
have loved and served the Lord, heaven will be a great picture gallery of remembrance. 
Hosts of the glorified will never forget you. Ah, that is a way of building monuments that 
will never feel the touch of decay. I do not ask you to suppress this natural desire of being 
remembered after you are gone, but I only want you to put your memorials into a shape 
that will never weaken nor fade. During the course of my ministry I have been intimately 




TEMPLES OF LEXOR FROM THE XILE. 



associated in Christian work with hundreds of good men and women. My memory is hung 
with their portraits more accurate and vivid than anything that Rembrandt ever put on 
•canvas: — Father Grice, DeWitt C. Moore, Father Voorhees, E. P. Hopkins, William 
Stephens, John Van Rensselaer, Gasherie DeWitt, Dr. Ward, and hundreds of others, all of 
them gone out of this life, but I hold the memory of them and shall hold them forever. 
They cannot escape from me. I shall remember them just as they looked on earth, and I 
shall remember many more after the earth has been an extinct planet for ages infinite. 
Oh, what stuff the memory is for monument building! 

As in Eg}'pt that beautiful afternoon, exhausted in body, mind, and soul, we 
mounted to return to Cairo, we took our last look of the Pyramid at Gizeh. And yon know- 
there is something in the air toward evening that seems productive of solemn and tender 



330 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

emotion, and that great pyramid seemed to be humanized, and with lips of stone it seemed 
to speak and cry out : " Hear me, man, mortal and immortal ! My voice is the voice of 
God. He designed me. Isaiah said I should be a sign and a witness. I saw Moses when 
he was a lad. I witnessed the long procession of the Israelites as they started to cross the 
Red Sea and Pharaoh's host in pursuit of them. The falcons and the eagles of many cen- 
turies have brushed my brow. I stood here when Cleopatra's barge landed with her sorceries, 
and Hypatia for her virtues was slain in yonder streets. Alexander the Great, Sesostris 
and Ptolemy admired my proportions. Herodotus and Pliny sounded my praise. I am old, 
I am very old. For thousands of years I have watched the coming and going of genera- 
tions. They tarry only a little while, but they make everlasting impression. I bear on my 
side the mark of the trowel and chisel of those who more than four thousand years ago 
expired. Beware what you do, oh, man ! for what you do will last long after you are dead ! 
If you would be affectionately remembered after you are gone, trust not to any earthly com- 
memoration. I have not one word to say about any astronomer who studied the heavens 
from my heights, or any king who was sepulchred in my bosom. I am slowly passing 
away. I am a dying pyramid. I shall yet lie down in the dust of the plain, and the sands 
of the desert shall cover me, or when the earth goes ■ I shall go. But j^ou are immortal. 
The feet with which you climbed my sides to-day will turn to dust, but you have a soul 
that will outlast me and all my brotherhood of pyramids. Live for eternity ! Live for 
God ! With the shadows of the evening now falling from my side, I pronounce upon you 
a benediction. Take it with you across the Mediterranean. Take it with j-ou across the 
Atlantic. God only is great ! Let all the earth keep silence before Him. Amen." And 
then the lips of granite hushed, and the great giant of masonry wrapped himself again in 
the silence of ages, and as I rode away in the gathering twilight, my thoughts ran with the 
poet's : 

" Wondrous Egypt ! Land of ancient pomp and pride, 

Where Beauty walks by hoary Ruin's side, 

Where plenty reigns and still the seasons smile. 

And rolls — rich gift of God — exhaustless Nile." 




CHAPTER XXXVI. 
THE ARTERY OF EGYPT. 

HA ! This is the river Nile. A brown, or yellow, or silver cord on which are 
hung more jewels of thrilling interest than on any river that was ever twisted 
in the sunshine. It ripples through the book of Ezekiel, and flashes in the 
books of Deuteronomy and Isaiah and Zechariah and Nahum, and on its banks 
stood the mightiest of many ages. It was the crystal cradle of Moses, and on its banks, 
Mary, the refugee, carried the infant Jesus. To find the birthplace of this river was the 
fascination and defeat of expeditions without number. Not many years ago. Bayard Taylor, 
our great American traveler, wrote : " Since Columbus first looked upon San Salvador, the 
earth has but one emotion of triumph left for her bestowal, and that she reserves for him 
who shall first drink from the fountains of the White Nile under the snow fields of Kili- 
manjaro." But the discovery of the sources of the Nile by most people was considered an 
impossibility. The malarias, the wild beasts, the savages, the unclimbable steeps, the vast 
distances, stopped all the expeditions for ages. An intelligent native said to Sir Samuel W. 
Baker and wife as they were on their way to accomplish that in which others had failed : 
" Give up the mad scheme of the Nile source. How would it be possible for a lady youi g 
and delicate to endure what would kill the strongest man ? Give it up." But the work 
went on until Speke, and Grant, and Baker found the two lakes which are the source of 
what was called the White Nile, and baptized these two lakes with the names of Victoria 
and Albert. These two lakes, filled by great rainfalls and by accumulated snows from the 
mountains, pour their waters, laden with agricultural wealth such as blesses no other river, 
on down over the cataracts, on between frowning mountains, on between cities living and 
cities dead, on for four thousand miles and through a continent. But the White Nile would 
do little for Egypt if this were all. It would keep its banks and Egypt would remain a 
desert. But from Abyssinia there comes what is called the Blue Nile, which, though dry or 
nearly dry half the year, under tremendous rains about the middle of June rises to great 
momentum, and this Blue Nile dashes with sudden influx into the White Nile, which, in 
consequence, rises thirty feet, and their combined waters inundate Egypt with a rich soil, 
which drops on all the fields and gardens as it is conducted by ditches, and sluices, and 
canals everywhither. The greatest damage that ever came to Egypt came by the drying up 
of the river Nile, and the greatest blessing by its healthful and abundant flow. The famine 
in Joseph's time came from the lack of sufficient inundation from the Nile. Not enough Nile is 
drouth, too much Nile is freshet and plague. The rivers of the earth are the mothers of 
its prosperity. If by some convulsion of nature the Mississippi should be taken from North 
America, or the Amazon from South America, or the Danube from Europe, or the Yenesei 
from Asia — what hemispheric calamity ! Still, there are other rivers that could fertilize 
and save these countries. Our own continent is gulched, is ribboned, is glorified by 
innumerable water-courses. But Egypt has only one great river, and that is harnessed to 
draw all the prosperities of realms in acreage semi-infinite. What happens to the Nile, 

(330 



332 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



happens to Egypt. The Nilometer was to me very suggestive as we went up and down its 
damp stone steps and saw the pillar marked with inches, telling just how high or low are 
the waters of the Nile. When the Nile is rising, four criers every morning run through the 
city announcing how many feet the river has risen — ten feet, fifteen feet, twenty feet, twenty- 
four feet ; and when the right height of water is reached the gates of the canals are flung 
open and the liquid and refreshing benediction is pronounced on all the land. 

As we start where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean Sea we behold a wonderful 
fulfillment of prophecy. The Nile in very ancient times used to have seven mouths. As 
the great river approached the sea it entered the sea at seven different places. Isaiah prophe- 
sied, " The Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian Sea and shall smite it in 
the seven streams." The fact is they are all destroyed but two, and Herodotus said these 
two remaining are artificial. Up the Nile we shall go ; part of the way by Egyptian rail 

train and then by 
boat, and we shall 
understand why 
the Bible gives such 
prominence to this 
river, which is the 
largest river of all 
the earth with one 
exception. But be- 
fore we board the 
train we must take 
a look at Alexan- 
dria. It was founded 
by Alexander the 
Great and was once 
the New York, the 
Paris, the London 
of the world. Tem- 
ples, palaces, foun- 
tains, gardens, 
pillared and efflo- 
rescent with all ar- 
chitectural and 

Edenic grandeur and sweetness. Apollos, the eloquent, whom in New Testament times some 
people tried to make a rival to Paul, lived here. Here Mark, the author of the second book of 
the New Testament, expired under Nero's anathema. From here the ship sailed that left Paul 
and the crew struggling in the breakers of Melita. Pompey's Pillar is here, about one hundred 
feet high, its base surrounded by so much filth and squalor I was glad to escape into an air 
that was breathable. This tower was built in honor of Diocletian for sparing the rebellious 
citizens. After having declared that he would inake the blood run to his horse's knees, his 
horse falling with him into the blood and his knees being reddened, the tyrant took it for 
granted that was a sign he should stop the massacre, and hence this commemorative pillar 
to his mercy. This is the city to which Omar came after building fourteen hundred 
mosques, and destroying four thousand temples and thirty-five thousand villages and castles, 
yet riding in on a camel with a sack of corn, a sack of figs and a wooden plate, all that, he 




A SHADORP FOR RAISING WATER FROM THE NII,E FOR IRRIGATION. 



334 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



had kept for himself ; and the diet to which he had limited himself for most of the time was 
bread and water. Was there ever in any other man a commingling of elements so strange, 
so weird, so generous, so cruel, so mighty, so weak, so religious, so fanatical ? In this city 
was the greatest female lecturer the world ever saw — H}'patia. But the lessons of virtue 
that she taught were obnoxious, and so they dragged her through the streets and scraped her 
flesh from her bones with sharp oyster shells and then burned the fragments of the massa- 
cred body. And here dwelt Cleopatra, pronounced to be the beauty of all time — although 
if her pictures are correct I have seen a thousand women in America more attractive — and 
she was as bad as she was said to be handsome. Queen, conqueress, and spoke seven 
languages, although it would have been better for the world if she had not been able to 
speak any. Julius Csesar conquered the world, yet she conquered Julius Ceesar. 

But, Alexandria, fascinating for this or that thing, according to the taste of the visitor, 
■was to me the most entertaining because it had been the site of the greatest librar}^ that 

the world ever saw, con- 
sidering the fact that the 
art of printing had not 
been invented. Seven 
hundred thousand vol- 
umes and all the work 
of a slow pen. But down 
it all went under the 
torch of besiegers. Built 
again and destroyed 
again. Built again, but 
the Arabs came along 
for its final demolition, 
and the four thousand 
baths of the city were 
heated with those vol- 
umes, the fuel lasting six 
months, and were ever 
fires kindled at such fear- 
ful cost? What holo- 
causts of the world's 
literature ! What martyrdom of books ! How many of them have gone down under the 
rage of nations. Only one book has been able to withstand the bombardment, and that 
has gone through without smell of fire on its lids. No sword or spear or musket for its 
defence. An unarmed New Testament. An unarmed Old Testament. Yet invulnerable 
and triumphant. There must be something supernatural about it. Conqueror of books ! 
Monarch of books ! All the books of all the ages in all the libraries outshone by this one 
book which you and I can carry to church in a pocket. So methought amid the ashes of 
Alexandrian libraries. 

But all aboard the Egyptian rail train going up the banks of the Nile ! Look out of 
the window and see those camels kneeling for the imposition of their load. And I think we 
might take from them a lesson, and instead of tr>'ing to stand upright in our own strength, 
become conscious of our weakness and need of divine help before we take upon us the 
heavy duties of the 3'ear or the week or the day, and so kneel for the burden. We meet 




A DAHABEAH, OR NILE BOAT. 




NATrV'ES OF THE UPPER NILE AT PRAYER, 



336 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



processions of men and beasts on the way from their day's work, but alas for the homes to 
which the poor inhabitants are going ! For the most part hovels of mud. But there is 
something in the scene that thoroughly enlists us. It is the novelty of wretchedness and a 
scene of picturesque rags. For thousands of years this land has been under a very damna- 
tion of taxes. Nothing but Christian civilization will roll back the influences which are 
" spoiling the Egyptians." There are gardens and palaces, but they belong to the rulers. 

About here, under the valiant Murad Bey, the Mamelukes, who are the finest horsemen 
in all the world, came like a hurricane upon Napoleon's army, but they were beaten back 
by the French in one of the fiercest battles of all time. Then the Mamelukes turned their 
horses' heads the other way, and in desperation backed them against the French troops, 
hoping the horses would kick the life out of the French regiments. The Mamelukes fail- 
ing again, plunged into this Nile and were drowned, the French 
for days fishing out the dead bodies of the Mamelukes to get the 
valuables upon their bodies. Napoleon, at the daring of these 
Mamelukes exclaimed, " Could I have united the Mameluke 
horse to the French infantry, I should have reckoned myself 
master of the world." 

This ride along the Nile is one of the most solemn and im- 
pressive rides of all my lifetime, and our emotions deepen 

as the curtains of the night fall 
upon all surroundings. But we 
shall not be satisfied until we 
can take a ship and pass right 
out upon these wondrous waters 
and between the banks crowded 
with the story of empires. 

According to the lead pencil 
mark in my Bible it was 
Thanksgiving Day morning, in 
the United States, that with my 
family and friends we stepped 
aboard the steamer on the Nile. 
The Mohammedan call to 
prayers had been sounded by 
the priests of that religion, 
the Muezzins, from the four hundred mosques of Cairo, as the cry went out : " God is 
great. I bear witness that there is no God but God. I bear witness that Mohammed is 
the apostle of God. Come to prayers. Come to salvation. God is great. There is no 
other but God. Prayers are better than sleep." The sky and city and palm groves and 
river shipping were bathed in the light. It was not much of a craft that we boarded. It 
would not be hailed on any of our rivers with any rapture of admiration. It fortunately 
had but little speed, for twice we ran aground and the sailors jumped into the water and on 
their shoulders pushed her out. But what yacht of gayest sportsman, what deck of swiftest 
ocean queen could give such thrill of rapture as a sail on the Nile ? The pyramids in 
sight, the remains of cities that are now only a name, the villages thronged with popula- 
tion. Both banks crowded with historical deeds of forty or sixty centuries. Oh, what a 
Book the Bible is when read on the Nile ! 




BARRAGE, OR WING DAM, TO INCREASE THE DEPTH OF THE NII,E. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



337 



As we slowly move up the majestic river I see on each bank the wheels, the pumps, the 
buckets for irrigation, and see a man with his foot on the treadle of a wheel that fetches up 
the water for a garden, and then for the first time I understand that passage in Deuteronom\- 
which says of the Israelites after they had got back from Egypt : " The land whither thou 
goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt from whence ye came out, where thou 
sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot." Then I understood how the land could be 
watered with the foot. How do you suppose I felt when on the deck of that steamer on the 
Nile I looked off upon the canals and ditches and sluices through which the fields are irri- 
gated by that river, and then read in Isaiah : " The burden of Egypt. The river shall be 
wasted and dried up, and they shall turn the rivers far away ; and the brooks of defence shall 
be emptied and dried up ; and they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, — all that make 




RAMESEUM AND TOMBS OF THE KINGS, THEBES. 

sluices and ponds for fish." Pharaoh in this chapter is compared to the dragon or hippopo- 
tamus suggested by the crocodiles that used to line the banks of this river : " Thus saith 
the Lord God ; — Behold I am against thee, Pharaoh King of Egypt, the great dragon that 
lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said. My river is mine own, and I have made it 
for myself. But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick 
unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of 
thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales, and the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste ; 
and they shall know that I am the L,ord : because he hath said the river is mine, and I have 
made it." 

While sailing on this river or stopping at one of the villages, we see people on the 
banks who verify the Bible description, for they are now as they were in Bible times.. 



338 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



Shoes are now taken off in reverence to sacred places. Children carried astride the mother's 
shoulder, as in Hagar's time. Women with profusion of jewelry, as when Rebecca was 
affianced. Lentils shelled into the pottage, as when Esau sold his birthright to get such a dish. 
The same habits of salutation as when Joseph and his brethren fell on each other's necks. 
Courts of law held under big trees, as in olden times. People making bricks without straw, 
compelled by circumstances to use stubble instead of straw. Flying over or standing on the 
banks, as in Scripture days, are flamingoes, ospreys, eagles, pelicans, herons, cuckoos and 
bullfinches. On all sides of this river sepulchres. Villages of sepulchres. Cities of sep- 
ulchres. Nations of sepulchres. And one is tempted to call it an empire of tombs. I never 
saw such a place as Egypt is for graves. And now we understand the complaining sarcasm 
of the Israelites when they were on the way from Egypt to Canaan : " Because there were 
no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness ? " Down the river 

bank come the buffalo and the 
cattle or kine to drink. And it 
was the ancestors of these cattle 
that inspired Pharaoh's dream of 
the lean kine and the fat kine. 

Here we disembark a little 
while for Memphis, off from the 
Nile to the right. Memphis 
founded by the first king of Egypt 
and for a long while the capital. 
A city of marble and gold. Home 
of the Pharaohs. City nineteen 
miles in circumference. Vast 
colonnades through which impos- 
ing processions marched. Here 
stood the Temple of the Sun, 
itself in brilliancy a sun shone on 
by another sun. Thebes was in 
power over a thousand one hun- 
dred years, or nearly ten times as 
long as the United States have 
existed. Here, at Memphis, is a 
recumbent statue seventy-five feet - 
long. Bronzed gateways. A necropolis called " the haven of the blest." Here Joseph was 
prime minister. Here Pharaoh received Jacob. All possible splendors were built up 
into this royal city. Hosea, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Isaiah speak of it as something 
wonderful. Never did I visit a city with such exalted anticipations and never did my 
anticipations drop so flat. Not a pillar stands. Not a wall is unbroken. Not a fountain 
tosses in the sun. Even the ruins have been ruined, and all that remain are chips of 
marble, small pieces of fractured sculpture and splintered human bones. Here and 
there a letter of some elaborate inscription, a toe or ear of a statue that once stood in 
niche of palace wall. Ezekiel prophesied its blotting-out, and the prophecy has been ful- 
filled. " Ride on," I said to our party, " and don't wait for me." And as I stood there 
alone, the city of Memphis in the glory of past centuries returned. And I heard the rush 
of her chariots and the dash of her fountains and the conviviality of her palaces, and saw 




OBEMSK, AND PROPYI<ON OF THE TEMPI^E OF I,UXOR 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



339 



the drunken nobles roll on the floors of mosaic, while in startling contrast, amid all the 
regalities of the place, I saw Pharaoh look up into the face of aged rustic Jacob, the shep- 
herd, saying, " How old art thou ? " 

But back to the Nile and on and up till you reach Thebes, in Scripture called the City 
of No. Hundred-gated Thebes. A quadrangular city four miles from limit to limit. Four 
great temples, two of them Karnac and lyuxor, once mountains of exquisite sculpture and 
gorgeous dreams solidified in stone. Statue of Rameses H, eight hundred and eighty-seven 
tons in weight and seventy-five feet high, but now fallen and scattered. Walls abloom with 
the battlefields of centuries. The surrounding hills of rock hollowed into sepulchres, on 
the wall of which are chiseled in picture and hieroglyphics the confirmation of Bible story 
in regard to the treatment of the Israelites in Egypt, so that, as explorations go on with the 
work, the walls of these sepulchres be- 
come commentaries of the Bible, the 
Scriptures originally written upon parch- 
ment, here cut into everlasting stone. 
Thebes mighty and dominant five hun- 
dred years. Then she went down in 
fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy concern- 
ing the City of No, which was another 
name for Thebes : " I will execute judg- 
ment in No. I will cut ofi" the multitudes 
of No." Jeremiah also prophesied, " Thus 
saith the Lord, I will punish the multi- 
tudes of No." This city of Thebes and 
all the other dead cities of Egypt iterate 
and reiterate the veracity of the Scrip- 
tures, telling the same story which Moses 
and the prophets told. Have you noticed 
how God kept back these archaeological 
confirmations of the Bible until our 
time, when the air is full of unbelief 
about the truthfulness of the dear old 
Book? 

He waited until the printing press 
had been set up in its perfected shape, 
and the submarine cable was laid, and 
the whole world was intelligent enough to 
appreciate the testimony, and then he resurrected the dead cities of the earth, and commands 
them, saying, " Open your long sealed lips and speak ! Memphis and Thebes ! Is the Bible 
true ? " ■" True ! " respond Memphis and Thebes. " Babylon ! Is the Book of Daniel true ? " 
" True ! " responds Babylon. " Ruins of Palestine and Syria ! Is the New Testament true ? " 
" True ! " respond the ruins all the way from Joppa to the Dead Sea, and from Jerusalem to 
Damascus. What a mercy that this testimony of the dead cities should come at a time 
when the Bible is especially assailed. And this work will go on until the veracity and 
divinity of the Scriptures will be as certain to all sensible men and women as that two and 
two make four, as that an isosceles triangle is one which has two of its sides equal, as that 
the diameter of a circle is a line drawn through the centre and terminated by the 




GODDESS OF UPPER 



AND LOWER EGYPT CROWNING 
PHARAOH. 



340 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



circumference, as certain as any mathematical demonstration. Never did I feel more encour- 
aged than when after preaching a sermon on evidences of the truth of the Bible drawn from 
Oriental lands, a distinguished senator of the United States, known and honored every- 
where, but now deceased, came up to the platform and said : " I was brought up in the 
faith of Christianity, but I got speculating on all these subjects, and had given up my faith 
in the Bible, but those facts and arguments archaeological take me back to my old faith in 
the Bible, which my father and mother taught me." The tears rolling down his cheeks 
evinced the depth of his emotion. When I read of the senator's death I was comforted to 
think that perhaps I may have helped him a little in the struggle of this life, and perhaps 
given him an easier pillow on which to die. 

Two great nations, Egypt and Greece, diplomatized and almost came to battle for one 
book, a copy of ^schylus. Ptolemy the Egyptian king, discovered that in the great 

library at Alexandria there was no 
copy of ^schylus. The Egyp- 
tian king sent up to Athens, 
Greece, to borrow the book and 
make a copy of it. Athens de- 
manded a deposit of seventeen 
thousand seven hundred dollars as 
security. The Egyptian king re- 
ceived the book, but refused to 
return that which he had borrowed, 
and so forfeited the seventeen 
thousand seven hundred dollars. 
The two nations rose in contention 
concerning that one book. Beau- 
tiful and mighty book indeed ! But 
it is a book of horrors, the dominant 
idea that we are the victims of 
hereditary influences from which 
there is no escape, and that Fate 
rules the world ; and although the 
author does tell of Prometheus who 
was crucified on the rocks for sym- 
pathy for mankind, a powerful sug- 
gestion of the sacrifice of Christ in later years, it is a very poor book compared with that 
Book which we hug to our hearts because it contains our only guide in life, our only comfort 
in death, and our only hope for a blissful immortality. If two nations could afford to 
struggle for one copy of .^^schylus, how much more can all nations afford to struggle for 
the possession and triumph of the Holy Scriptures ! 

But the dead cities strung along the Nile not only demolish infidelity, but thunder down 
the absurdity of the modern doctrine of evolution, which says the world started with nothing 
and then rose, and human nature began with nothing but evolved into splendid manhood 
and womanhood of itself Nay ; the sculpture of the world was more wonderful in the 
days of Memphis and Thebes and Carthage than in the days of Boston and New York. 
Those blocks of stone, weighing three hundred tons, high up in the wall at Karnac imply 
machinery equal to, if not surpassing, the machinery of the nineteenth century. How was 




THE COLOSSI, THEBES. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 341 

that statue of Rameses, weighing eight hundred and eighty-seven tons, transported from the 
quarries two hundred miles away, and how was it lifted? Tell us, modern machinists. 
How were those galleries of rock, still standing at Thebes, filled with paintings surpassed 
by no artist's pencil of the present day ? Tell us, artists of the nineteenth century. The 
dead cities of Egypt so far as they have left enough pillars or statues or sepulchres or 
temple ruins to tell the story — Memphis, Migdol, Hierapolis, Zoan, Thebes, Goshen, 
Carthage — all of them developing downward, instead of upward. They have evoluted from 
magnificence into destruction. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the elevator of individual and 
social national character. Let all the living cities know that pomp and opulence and 
temporal prosperity are no security. Those ancient cities lacked nothing but good morals. 
Dissipation and sin slew them, and unless dissipation and sin are halted, they will some day 
slay our modern cities, and leave our palaces of merchandise and our galleries of art and our 
city halls as flat in the dust as we found Memphis on the afternoon of that interesting 
day. And if the cities go down, the nation will go down. " Oh," you say, ," that is 
impossible ; we have stood so long — yea, over a hundred j^ears as a nation." Why, what of 
that ? Thebes stood five hundred years ; Memphis stood a thousand years. God does not 
forget. One day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand 3'ears as one day. 
Rum and debaucher}' and bad politics are more rapidly working the destruction of our 
American cities than sin of any kind, and all kinds worked for the destruction of the cities of 
Africa, once so mighty and now so prostrate. But their gods were idols, and could do nothing 
except for debasement. Our God made the heavens and sent His Son to redeem the nations. 
And our cities will not go down, and our nation will not perish because the gospel is going 
to triumph. Forward ! all schools and colleges and churches ! Forward ! all reformatory 
and missionary organizations. Forward ! all the influences marshaled to bless the world. 
Let our modern European and American cities listen to the voice of those ancient cities 
resurrected, and by hammer and chisel and crow-bar compelled to speak. 

I notice the voice of those ancient cities is hoarse from the exposure of forty centuries, 
and they accentuate slowly with lips that were palsied for ages, but altogether those cities 
along the Nile intone these words : " Hear us, for we are very old, and it is hard for us to 
speak. We were wise long before Athens learned her first lesson. We sailed our ships 
while yet navigation was unborn. We sinned and we fell. Our learning could not save us : 
see those half obliterated hieroglyphics on yonder wall. Our architecture could not save 
ns : see the painted columns of Philae. Our heroes could not save us : witness this, Menes, 
Diodorus, Rameses and Ptolemy. Our gods Ammon and Osiris could not save us : see 
their fallen temples all along the four thousand miles of Nile. O, ye modern cities, get 
some other god — a God who can help, a God who can pardon, a God who can save. Called 
up as we are for a little while to give testimony, again the sands of the desert will bury us. 
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust !" And as these voices of porphyry and granite ceased, all the 
sarcophagi under the hills responded, " Ashes to ashes ! " and the capital of a lofty column 
fell, grinding itself to powder among the rocks, and responding, " Dust to dust ! " 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 



XD 



BRICK-KILNS OF EGYPT. 

^ HAT is all this excitement about in the streets of Cairo, Egypt, this beautiful 
morning in 1889 ? Stand back ! We hear loud voices and see the crowds of 
people retreating to the sides of the street. The excitement of others becomes 
our own excitement. Footmen come in sight. They have a rod in hand and 
tasseled cap on head, and their arms and feet are bare. Their garb is black to the waist, 
except as threaded with gold, and the rest is white. They are clearing the way for an 
ofBcial dignitary in a chariot or carriage. They are swift and sometimes run thirty or forty 
miles at a stretch in front of an equipage. Make way ! They are the fleetest-footed men 
on earth, but soon die, for the human frame was not made for such endurance. I asked all 
around me who the man in the carriage was, but no one seemed to know. Yet as I fell 

back with the rest to the wall, I 
said, this is the old custom found 
all up and down the Bible, footmen 
running before the rulers, demand- 
ing obeisance, as in Genesis before 
Joseph's chariot the people were 
commanded, " Bow the knee ; " and 
as I saw the swift feet of the men 
followed by the swift feet of the 
horses, how those old words of 
Jeremiah rushed through my mind : 
" If thou hast run with the footmen 
and they have wearied thee, how 
canst thou contend with horses ? " 
Two hundred and eighty-nine 
times does the Bible refer to Egypt 
and the Egyptians. No wonder, 
for Egypt was the mother of na- 
tions. Egypt, the mother of 
Greece ; Greece, the mother of 
Rome ; Rome, the mother of Eng- 
land ; England, the mother of our 
own land. According to that, Egypt is our great-great-grandmother. In other chapters I left 
you studying what they must have been in their glory : the Hypostyle Hall of Karnak, the 
architectural miracles at Luxor, the Colonnade of Horemheb, the cemeteries of Memphis, 
the value of a kingdom in one monument, the Sphinx, which with lips of stone speaks loud 
enough to be heard across the centuries ; Heliopolis and Zoan, the conundrum of archaeolo- 
gists. But all that extravagance of palace and temple and monument was the cause of an 

(342) 




GENERAI, VIEW OF I,UXOR. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



343 



oppression liigli as heaven and deep as hell. The weight of those blocks of stone, heavier 
than any modern machinery could lift, came down upon the Hebrew slaves, and their blood 
mixed the mortar for the trowels. 

We saw again and again on and along the Nile a boss workman roughly smite a subor- 
dinate who did not please him. It is no rare occurrence to see long lines of men under 
heav}' burdens passing by taskmasters at short distances, lashing them as they go by into 
greater speed, and then these workmen, exhausted by the blasting heats of the day, lying 
down upon the bare ground, suddenly chilled with the night air, crying out in prayer, " Ya ! 
Allah ! " " Ya ! Allah ! " which means Oh ! God ! Oh ! God ! But what must have been 
the olden times cruelty shown by the Eg^^ptians toward their Israelitish slaves is indicated 
by a picture in the Beni-Hassan tombs, where a man is held down on his face by two men, 




ISLAND OF PHILAE FROM BIGGEH. 

and another holds up the victim's feet, while the officials beat the bare back of the victim, 
every stroke, I have no doubt, fetching the blood. 

Now you see how the Pharaohs could afford to build such costly works. It cost them 
nothing for wages, nothing but the tears and blood of the toilers, and tears and blood are a 
cheap drink for devils. " Bricks without straw " may not suggest so much hardship until 
you know that the bricks were usually made with " crushed straw," straw crushed by tlie 
feet of the oxen in the threshing, and, this crushed straw denied to the workmen, the\' had 
to pick up here and there a piece of stubble or gather nishes from the water-side. Tiiis 
story of the Bible is confirmed by the fact that many of the brick walls of Egypt have on 
the lower layer bricks made with straw, but the higher layers of brick made out of rough 
straw, or rushes from the river bank, the truth of the book of Exodus thus written in the 



344 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



brick walls discovered by the modern explorers. That governmental outrage has always 
been a characteristic of Egyptian rulers. Taxation to the point of starvation was the 
Egyptian rule in the Bible times as well as it is in our own time. A modern traveler gives 
the figures concerning the cultivation of seventeen acres, the value of the yield of the field 
stated in piasters (about eight cents) : 

Produce, ^8°^ 

Expenses, 993/^ 



Clear produce, 
Taxes, . . 



493 



Amount cleared by the fanner > 315/4 

Or, as my authority declares, seventy per cent of what the Egyptian farmer makes is paid 
for taxes to the government. Now, that is not so much taxation as assassination. What 

think you of that, you who 
groan under heavy taxes in 
America ? I have heard that 
in Egypt the working people 
have a song like this: "They 
starve us, they starve us, 
they beat us, they beat us, 
but there's some one above, 
there's some one above, who 
will punish them well, who 
will punish them well." But 
seventy per cent of govern- 
ment tax in Egypt is a mercy 
as compared to what the 
Hebrew slaves suffered there 
in Bible times. They got 
nothing but food hardly fit 
for a dog, and their clothing 
was of one rag, and their roof 
a burning sky by da}' and 
the stars of heaven by night. 
You say, "Why did they stand it?" Because they had to stand it. You see along 
back in the world's twilight there was a famine in Canaan, and old Jacob and his sons 
came to Egypt for bread. The old man's boy Joseph was prime minister, and Joseph — I 
suppose the father atid the brothers called him Joe, for it does not make any difference 
how much a boy is advanced in worldly success, his father and brothers and sisters 
always call him by the same name that he was called by when two years old — Joseph, 
by Pharaoh's permission, gave to his family, who had just arrived, the richest part of 
Egypt, the Westchester farms or the Lancaster farms of the ancients. Jacob's 
descendants rapidly multiplied. After a while Egypt took a turn at famine, and those 
descendants of Jacob, the Israelites, came to a great storehouse which Joseph had 
provided, and paid in money for corn. But after a while the money gave out and then 
they paid in cattle. After a while the cattle were all in the possession of the government, 
and then the Hebrews bought corn from the government by surrendering themselves as slaves. 




PROPYLOX OF THE TEMPLE, DENDERAH, 




KING THEEBAW'S PRIMA DONNA DANCING GIRL. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



345 



Then began slavery in Egypt. The government owned all the Hebrews. And let 
modern lunatics, who in America propose handing over telegraph companies and railroads 
and other things to be run by the government, see the folly of letting the government get 
its hand on everything. I would rather trust the people than any government the United 
States ever had or will have. Woe worth the day when legislators and congresses and 
administrations get possession of anything more than it is necessary for them to have. 
That would be the revival in this land of that old Egyptian tyranny for which God has 
never had anything but red-hot thunderbolts. But through such unwise processes Israel 
was enslaved in Egypt, and the long line of agonies began all up and down the Nile. 
Heavier and sharper fell the lash, hungrier and ghastlier grew the workmen, louder and 
longer went up the prayer, until three millions of the enslaved were crying, " Ya ! Allah ! 
Ya! Allah!" Oh! God! 
Oh! God! 

Where was help to 
come from? Not the 
throne, Pharaoh sat upon 
that. Not the army, 
Pharaoh's officers com- 
manded that. Not sur- 
rounding nations, 
Pharaoh's threat made 
them all tremble. Not 
the gods, Amnion and 
Osiris, or the goddess 
Isis, for Pharaoh built 
their temples out of the 
groans of this diabolical 
servitude. But one hot 
day the princess Tho- 
noris, the daughter of 
Pharaoh, while in her 
bathing-house on the 
banks of the Nile, has 
word brought her that 
there is a baby afloat on 
the river in a cradle made out of big leaves. Of course there is excitement all up 
and down the banks, for an ordinary baby in an ordinary cradle attracts smiling 
attention, but an infant in a cradle of papyrus rocking on the river arouses not only 
admiration but curiosity. Who made that boat? Who made it water-tight with 
bitumen ? Who launched it ? Reckless of the crocodiles which lay basking them- 
selves in the sun, the maidens wade in and snatch up the child, and first one carries 
him and then another carries him, and all the way up the bank he runs a gauntlet 
of caresses, till Thonoris rushes out of the bathing-house and says, " Beautiful foundling, 
I will adopt you as my own. You shall yet wear the Egyptian crown and sit on the 
Egyptian throne." No ! No ! No ! He is to be the emancipator of the Hebrews. Tell it 
in all the brick-kilns. Tell it among all those who are writhing under the lash, tell it 
among all the castles of Memphis and Heliopolis and Zoan and Thebes. Before him a sea 




PHARAOH'S BED, PHILAE. 



346 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 




will part. On a mountain top, alone, this one will receive from the Almighty a law that 
is to be the foundation of all good law while the world lasts. When he is dead God will 

come down on Nebo and alone bury him, no man 
or woman or angel worthy to attend the obse- 
quies. The child grows up and goes out and 
studies the horrors of Egyptian oppression, and 
suppresses his indignation, for the right time has 
not come, although once for a minute he let fly, 
and when he saw a taskmaster put the whip on 
the back of a workman who was doing his best 
and heard the poor fellow cry and saw the blood 
spurt, Moses doubled up his fist and struck him 
on the temple till the cruel villain rolled over 
in the sand exanimate and never swung the lash 
again. Served him right ! 

But, Moses, are you going to undertake the 
impossibilities ? You feel that you are going to 
free the Hebrews from bondage, but where is 
your army ? Where is your navy ? Not a sword 
have you, not a spear, not a chariot, not a horse. 
Ah ! God was on his side and He has an army of 
His own. The snow-storms are on God's side : 
witness the snow-banks in which the French 

MOMMY OF RAMESES III., BOULAK MUSEUM. r •„ • -U ■ J il. • U 1 

army of invasion were buried on their way back 
from Moscow. The rain is on His side : witness the eighteenth of June at Waterloo when 
the tempests so saturated the road that the attack could not be made on Wellington's 
forces until ii o'clock and 
he was strong enough to 
hold out until reinforce- 
ments arrived. Had that 
battle been opened at 5 
o'clock in the morning in- 
stead of at II the destiny 
of Europe would have been 
turned the wrong way. The 
heavy rain decided every- 
thing. So also are the 
winds and the waves on 
God's side : witness the 
Armada, with one hundred 
and fifty ships and twenty- 
six hundred and fifty guns 
and eight thousand sailors 
and twenty thousand 
soldiers, sent out by Philip 
II of Spain to conquer Eng- 
land. What became of men view of the ruins at philae. 




THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



347 



and shipping ? Ask the wind and the waves all along the English and Irish coasts. The 
men and the ships all wrecked or drowned or scattered. So I expect that Moses will be 
helped in rescuing the Israelites by a special weaponry. 

To the Egyptians the Nile was a deity. Its waters were very delicious. It was the 
finest natural beverage of all the earth. We have no such love for the Hudson, and Ger- 
mans have no such love for the Rhine, and Russians have no such love for the Volga, as 
the Egyptians have love for the Nile. But one day when Pharaoh comes down to this river 
Moses takes a stick and whips the waters and they turn into the gore of a slaughter-house, 
and through the sluices and fish-ponds the incarnadined liquid backs up into the land and 
the malodor whelms everything from mud hovel to throne-room. Then came the frogs with 
horrible croak all over everything. Then this people, cleanly almost to fastidiousness, were 
infested with insects that belong to the filthy and unkempt, and the air buzzed and buzzed 
with flies, and then the 
distemper started cows 
to bellowing and horses 
to neighing and camels 
to groaning, as they 
rolled over and expired. 
And then boils, one of 
which will put a man 
in wretchedness, came 
in clusters from the top 
of the head to the sole 
of the foot. And then 
the clouds dropped hail 
and lightning. And 
then locusts came in, 
swarms of them, worse 
than the grasshoppers 
ever were in Kansas, 
and then darkness 
dropped for three days 
so that the people 
could not see their hand 

before their face, great surges of midnight covering them. And, last of all, on the night 
of the eighteenth of April, about eighteen hundred years before Christ, the destroying 
angel sweeps past ; and hear it all night long, the flap ! flap ! flap ! of his awful wings, until 
Egypt rolled on, a great hearse, the eldest child dead in every Egyptian home. The eldest 
son of Pharaoh expired that night in the palace, and all along the streets of Memphis and 
Heliopolis and all up and down the Nile there was a funeral wail that would have rent the 
fold of the unnatural darkness if it had not been impenetrable. 

The Israelitish homes, however, were untouched. But these homes were full of prepara- 
tion, for now is your chance, O ye wronged Hebrews ! Snatch up what pieces of food you can 
and to the desert ! Its simoons are better than the bondage you have suffered. Its scorpions 
will not sting so sharply as the wrongs that have stung you all your lives. Away ! The 
man who was cradled in the basket of papyrus on the Nile will lead you. Up ! Up ! This 
is the night of your rescue. They gather together at a signal. Alexander's armies and all 




TOMBS OF THE CALIPHS, CAIRO. 



348 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



the armies of olden time were led by torches on high poles, great crests of fire ; and the 
Lord Almighty kindles a torch not held by human hands, but by omnipotent hand. Not 
made out of straw or oil, but kindled out of the atmosphere, such a torch as the world 
never saw before and never will see again. It reached from the earth unto the heaven, a 
pillar of fire, that pillar practically saying, " This way ! March this way ! " On that super- 
natural flambeau more than a million refugees set their eyes. Moses and Aaron lead on. 
Then come the families of Israel. Then come the herds and flocks moving on across the 
sands to what is the beach of waters now called Bahr-el-Kulzum, but called in the Bible 
the Red Sea. And when I dipped my hands in its blue waters the heroics of the Mosaic 
passage rolled over me. 

After three days' march the Israelitish refugees encamped for the night on the bank 
of the Red Sea. As tbe shadows begin to fall, in the distance is seen the host of Pharaoh 

in pursuit. There were 
six hundred finest war 
chariots followed by 
common chariots roll- 
ing at full speed. And 
the rumbling of the 
wheels and the curse of 
infuriated Bgyptians 
came down with the 
darkness. But the Lord 
opened the crystal gates 
of Bahr-el-Kulzura and 
the enslaved Israelites 
passed into liberty, and 
then the crystal gates 
of the sea rolled shut 
against the Egyptian 
pursuers. It was about 
2 o'clock in the morning 
when the interlocked 
axle-trees of the Egyp- 
tian chariots could not 
move an inch either 
way. But the Red Sea 
unhitched the horses, and unhelmeted the warriors, and left the proud host a wreck on the 
Arabian sands. Then two choruses arose, and Moses led the men in the one and Miriam led 
the women in the other, and the women beat time with their feet. The record says : " All 
the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, 
Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously ; the horse and his rider hath He 
thrown into the sea." What a thrilling story of endurance and victory ! The greatest 
triumph of Handel's genius was shown in his immortal dramatic oratorio, " Israel in Egypt." 
He had given to the world the oratorio of "Esther and Deborah," and " Athaliah," but 
reserved for his mightiest exertion at the full height of his powers the marshaling of all 
musical instruments to the description in harmony of the scenes to which I have referred. 
He gave twenty-seven days to this production, with its twenty-eight choruses, enthralling 




AVENUE OF SPHINXES AND ENTRANCE TO THE TEMPLE OF KARNAK. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



349 



his own time and all after-time with his "Israel in Egypt." So the burden of 
oppression was lifted, but another burden of Eg}'pt is made up of deserts. Indeed, 
Africa is a great continent for deserts — Libyan desert, Sahara desert, deserts here and 
there, and yonder, condemning vast regions of Africa to barrenness, one of the deserts 
three thousand miles long and a thousand miles wide. But all those deserts will 
yet be flooded, and so made fertile. De Lesseps said it can be done, and he who 
planned the Suez Canal, which marries the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, knew what he 
was talking about. The human race is so multiplied that it must have more cultivated 
land, and the world must abolish its deserts. Eight hundred million of the human race 
are now living on lands not blest 
with rains but dependent on 
irrigation, and we want by irri- 
gation to make room for eight 
hundred million more. By irri- 
gation the prophecy will be ful- 
filled, and "the desert will 
blossom as the rose." So from 
Egypt the burden of sand will 
be lifted. 

Another burden of Egypt to 
be lifted is the burden of Mo- 
hammedanism, although there 
are some good things about that 
religion. Its disciples must 
always wash before they pray, 
' and that is five times a day. A 
commendable grace is cleanli- 
ness. Strong drink is positively 
forbidden by Mohammedans, and 
though some may have seen a 
drunken Mohammedan, I never 
saw one. It is a religion of 
sobriety. Then they are not 
ashamed of their devotions. 
When the call for prayers is 
sounded from the minarets the 
Mohammedan immediately un- 
rolls the rug on the ground and falls on his knees, and crowds of spectators are to 
him no embarrassment — reproof to many a Christian who omits his praj'ers if people 
are looking. Bqt Mohammedanism, with its polygamy, blights everything it touches. 
Mohammed, its founder, had four wives, and his followers are the enemies of good woman- 
hood. Mohammedanism puts its curse on all Egypt, and by setting up a sinful Arab higher 
than the immaculate Christ, is an overwhelming blasphemy. May God help the brave and 
consecrated missionaries who are spending their lives in combating it ! 

But before I forget it I must put more emphasis upon the fact tliat tlie last 
outrage that resulted in the liberation of the Hebrews was their being conpelled to 
make bricks without straw. That was the last straw that broke the camel's back. God 




DECK SCENE ON 



DAHABEAH. 



35° 



THK EARTH GIRDLED. 



would allow the despotism against His people to go no further. Making bricks without 
straw ! 

That oppression still goes on. Demand of your wife appropriate wardrobe and boun- 
tiful table without providing the means necessary : bricks without straw. Cities demanding 
in the public school faithful and successful instruction without giving the teachers compe- 
tent livelihood : bricks without straw. United States Government demanding of senators 
and congressmen at Washington full attendance to the interests of the people, but on com- 
pensation which may have done well enough when twenty-five cents went as far as a dollar 
now, but in these times is not sufficient to preserve their influence and respectability : 
bricks without straw. In many parts of the land churches demanding of pastors vigorous 
sermons and sympathetic service on starvation salary, sanctified Ciceros on four hundred 
dollars a year : bricks without straw. That is one reason why there are so many poor 

bricks. In all departments, bricks 
not even, or bricks that crumble, 
or bricks that are not bricks at 
all. Work adequately paid for is 
worth more than work not paid 
for. More straw and then better 
bricks. 

But in all departments there 
are Pharaohs : sometimes Capital 
a Pharaoh, and sometimes Labor 
a Pharaoh. When Capital pros- 
pers, and makes large percentage 
on its investment, and declines to 
consider the needs of the opera- 
tives, and treats them as so many 
human machines, their nei"ves no 
more than the bands on the factory 
wheel — then Capital is a Pha- 
raoh. On the other hand, when 
workmen, not regarding the anxie- 
ties and business struggles of the 
firm employing them, and at a 
time when the firm are doing their best to meet an important contract and need all hands 
busy to accomplish it, at such a time to have the employes make a strike and put their 
employers into extreme perplexity and severe loss — then I^abor becomes a Pharaoh of the 
worst oppression, and must look out for the judgments of God. 

When, in my journeyings, at the Museum at Boulac, Egypt, I looked at the mum- 
mies of the old Pharaohs, the very miscreants who diabolized centuries, and I saw their 
teeth and hair and finger nails and the flesh drawn tight over their cheek bones, the sarco- 
phagi of these dead monarchs side by side, and I was so fascinated I could only with diffi- 
culty get away from the spot, I was not looking upon the last of the Pharaohs. Pharaoh 
thought he did a fine thing, a cunning thing, a decisive thing, when for the complete 
extinction of the Hebrews in Egypt he ordered all the Hebrew boys massacred, but he did 
not find it so fine a thing when his own first-born that night of the destroying angel dropped 
dead on the mosaic floor at the foot of the porphyry pillar of the palace. Let all the 




GREAT HALI, OF COI.UMNS, KARNAK. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



351 



Pharaohs take warning. Some of the worst of them are on a small scale in households, as 
when a man, because his arm is strong and his voice loud, dominates his poor wife into a 
doinestic slavery. There are thousands of such cases, where the wife is a lifetime serf, her 
opinion disregarded, her tastes insulted, and her existence a wretchedness, though the world 
may not know it. It is a Pharaoh that sits at the head of that table, and a Pharaoh that 
tyrannizes that home. There is no more abhorrent Pharaoh than a domestic Pharaoh. 
There are thousands of women to whom death is passage from Egypt to Canaan, because 
they get rid of a cruel taskmaster. What an accursed monster is that man who keeps his 
wife in dread about family expenses, and must be cautious how she introduces an article of 
millinery or womanly wardrobe without humiliating consultation and apology. Who is 
that man acting so ? For six months, in order to win that woman's heart he sent her every 
few days a bouquet wound with white 
ribbon, and an endearing couplet, and 
took her to concerts and theatres, and 
helped her into carriages as though 
she were a princess, and ran across the 
room to pick up her pocket-handker- 
chief with the speed of an antelope, 
and on the marriage-day promised all 
that the liturgy required, sa^'ing, " I 
will ! " with an emphasis that excited 
the admiration of all spectators. But 
now he begrudges her two cents for 
a postage stamp, and wonders why she 
rides across Brooklyn Bridge when the 
foot-passage costs nothing. He thinks 
now she is awful plain, and he acts 
like the devil, while he thunders out, 
" Where did you get that new hat ? 
That's where my money goes. Where's 
my breakfast ? Do j-ou call that 
coffee? What are you whimpering 
about? Hurry up now and get my 
slippers! Where's the newspaper?" 
of a Pharaoh. That is what gives 
you had better take your iron heel 
remove your heel. She says nothing. 




PROPYI,ON OF TEMPLE OF ISIS, PHILAE. 



The tone, the look, the impatience, the cruelty 

so many women a cowed-down look. Pharaoh ! 

ofE that woman's neck, or God will help you. 

For the sake of avoiding a scandal she keeps silent ;. 
but her tears and wrongs have gone into a record that you will have to meet as certainly as 
Pharaoh had to meet hail, and lightning, and darkness, and the death angel. God never 
yet gave to any man the right to tyrannize over a woman, and what a sneak you are tO' 
take advantage of the marriage-vow, and because she cannot help herself and under the 
shelter of your own home to out-Pharaoh the Egyptian oppressor. There is something 
awfully wrong in a household where the woman is not considered of as much importance 
as the man. No room in this world for any more Pharaohs ! 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THE ARCHIPELAGO. 

©OOD-BYE, Egypt ! Although interesting and instructive beyond any country in 
all the world, excepting the Holy Land, Egypt was to me somewhat depressing. 
It was a post-mortem examination of cities that died four thousand years ago. 
The mummies, or wrapped-up bodies of the dead, were prepared with reference 
to the Resurrection Day, the Egyptians departing this life wanting their bodies to be kept 
in as good condition as possible so that they would be presentable when they were called 
again to occupy them. But if when Pharaoh comes to resurrection he finds his body look- 
ing as I saw his mummy in the Museum at Boulac, his soul will become an unwilling tenant. 
The Sphinx also was to me a stern monstrosity, a statue carved out of rock of red granite, 
sixty-two feet high and about one hundred and forty-three feet long and having the head 
of a man and the body of a lion. We sat down in the sand of the African desert to study 
it. With a cold smile it has looked down upon thousands of years of earthly history ; 
Egyptian civilization, Grecian civilization, Roman civilization ; upon the rise and fall of 
thrones innumerable ; the victory and defeat of the armies of centuries. It took three 
thousand years to make one wrinkle on its red cheek. It is dreadful in its stolidity. Its eyes 
have never wept a tear. Its cold ears have not listened to the groans of the Eg^'ptian 
nation. Its heart is stone. It cared not for Pliny when he measured it in the first century. 
It will care nothing for the man who looks into its imperturbable countenance in the last 
century. 

But Egypt will yet come up to the glow of life. The Bible promises it. The mis- 
sionaries, like my friend, good and great Doctor Lansing, are sounding a resurrection 
trumpet above those slain empires. There will be some other Joseph at Memphis. There 
will be some other Moses on the banks of the Nile. There will be some other Hypatia to 
teach good morals to the degraded. When, soon after my arrival in Egypt, I took part in 
the solemn and tender obsequies of a missionary from our own land, dying there far away 
from the sepulchres of her fathers, and saw around her the dusky and weeping congregation 
of those whom she had come to save, I said to myself: " Here is self-sacrifice of the noblest 
type. Here is heroism immortal. Here is a queen unto God forever. Here is something 
grander than the Pyramids. Here is that which thrills the heavens. Here is a specimen of 
that which will yet save the world." 

Good-bye, Egypt ! This chapter finds us on the steamer Minerva in the Grecian Archi- 
pelago, the islands of the New Testament, and islands Paulinian and Johannian in their 
reminiscence. What Bradshaw's Directory is to travelers in Europe, and what the railroad 
guide is to travelers in America, the Book of the Acts in the Bible is to voyagers in the 
Grecian, or as I shall call it, the Gospel Archipelago. The Bible geography' of that region 
is accurate without a shadow of mistake. We are sailing this morning on the same 
waters that Paul sailed, but in the opposite direction to that which Paul vo3-aged. He was 
sailing southward and we northward. With him it was, Ephesus, Coos, Rhodes, Cyprus ; 

(352) 



354 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

with us it is reversed, and it is Cyprus, Rhodes, Coos, Ephesus. There is no book in the 
world so accurate as the Divine Book. Paul left Cyprus on the left ; we, going in the oppo- 
site direction, have it on the right. 

We had stopped during the night and in the morning the ship was as quiet as a iloor, 
when we hastened up to the deck and found that we had anchored off the island of Cj'prus. 
In a boat, which the natives rowed standing up, as is the custom, instead of sitting down as 
when we row, we were soon landed on the streets where Paul and Barnabas walked and 
preached. Yea, when at Antioch Paul and Barnabas got into a fight — as ministers some- 
times did, and sometimes do, for they all have imperfections enough to anchor them to this 
world till their work is done — I say, when because of that bitter controversy Paul and Bar- 
nabas parted, Barnabas came back here to Cyprus, which was his birthplace. Island won- 
derful for history ! It has been the prize sometimes won by Persia, by Greece, by Egypt, 
by the Saracens, by the Crusaders, and last of all, not by sword but by pen, and that the 
pen of the keenest diplomatist of the century, L,ord Beaconsfield, who under a lease which 
was as good as a purchase, set Cyprus among the jewels of Victoria's crown. We went out 
into the excavations from which Di Cesnola has enriched our American museums with antiq- 
uities, and with no better weapon than our foot we stirred up the ground deep enough to 
get a tear-bottle in which some mourner shed his tears thousands of years ago, and a lamp 
which before Christ was born lighted the feet of some poor pilgrim on his way. That island 
of Cyprus has enough to set an antiquarian wild. The most of its glory is the glory of the 
past, and the typhoid fevers that sweep its coast, and the clouds of locusts that often 
blacken its skies (though two hundred thousand dollars were expended by the British 
Empire in one year for the extirpation of these noxious insects, yet failing to do the work), 
and the frequent change of governmental masters, hinder prosperity. But when the islands 
of the sea come to God, Cyprus will come with them, and the agricultural and commercial 
opulence which adorned it in ages past will be eclipsed by the agricultural and commercial 
and religious triumphs of the ages to come. Why is the world so stupid that it cannot see 
that nations are prospered in temporal things in proportion as they are prospered in religious 
things ? Godliness is profitable not only for individuals but for nations. Give Cyprus to 
Christ, give England to Christ, give America to Christ, give the world to Christ, and He 
will give them all a prosperity unlimited. Why is Brooklyn one of the queen cities of the 
earth ? Because it is the queen city of churches. Blindfold me and lead me into any city 
of the earth so that I cannot see a street or a warehouse or a home, and then lead me into 
the churches and then remove the bandage from my eyes, and I will tell you from what I 
see inside the consecrated walls, having seen nothing outside, what is that city's merchan- 
dise, its literature, its schools, its printing-presses, its government, its homes, its arts, its 
sciences, its prosperity, or its depression, and ignorance, and pauperism and outlawry. The 
altar of God in the church is the high-water mark of the world's happiness. The Christian, 
religion triumphant, all other interests triumphant. The Christian religion low down, all 
other interests low down. So I thought as on the evening of that day we stepped 
from the filthy streets of Larnaca, Cyprus, on to the boat that took us back to 
the steamer, which had already begun to paw the waves like a courser impatient to 
be gone, and then we moved on and up among the islands of this Gospel Archipelago. 
Night came down on land and sea and the voyage became to me more and more sugges- 
tive and solemn. If you are pacing it alone, a ship's deck in the darkness and at sea is a 
weird place, and an active imagination may conjure up almost any shape he will, and it 
shall walk the sea or confront him by the smoke-stack, or meet him under the captain's 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



355 



bridge. But here I was alone on ship's deck in the Gospel Archipelago, and do you wonder 
that the sea was populous with the past and that down the ratlines Bible memories 
descended ? Our friends had all gone to their berths. " Captain," I said, '' when 
shall we arrive at the Island of Rhodes?" Looking out from under his glazed cap, 
he responded in sepulchral voice : " About midnight." Though it would be keeping 
unseasonable hours, I concluded to stay on deck, for I must see Rhodes, one of the 
islands associated with the name of the greatest missionary the world ever saw or 
ever will see. Paul landed there and that was enough to make it famous while the 
world stands, and famous in heaven when the world has become a charred wreck. 




CHURCH OP SAN GEORGIO MAGGIORE, VENICE, ITALY. 

This island has had a wonderful history. With six thousand Knights of St. John, it at 
one time stood out against two hundred thousand warriors under " Solyman the Magnifi- 
cent." The city had three thousand statues, and a statue to Apollo called Colossus, which 
has always since been considered one of the seven wonders of the world. It was twelve 
years in building and was seventy cubits high, and had a winding stairs to the top. It stood 
fifty-six years and then was prostrated by an earthquake. After lying in ruins for nine 
hundred years, it was purchased to be converted to other purposes, and the metal, weighing 
seven hundred and twenty thousand pounds, was put on nine hundred camels and carried 
awa}'. We were not pennitted to go ashore, but the lights all up and down the hills show 
where the city stands, and nine boats come out to take freight and to bring three passengers. 



356 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

Yet all the thousands of years of its history are eclipsed by the few hours or days that Paul 
stopped there. 

As we move on up through this Archipelago, I am reminded of what an important part 
the islands have taken in the history of the world. Thej' are necessary to the balancing 
of the planet. The two hemispheres must have them. As you put down upon a scale the 
heavy pound weights, and then the small ounces, and no one thinks of despising the small 
weights, so the continents are the pounds and the islands are the ounces. A continent is 
only a larger island and. an island only a smaller continent. Something of what part the 
islands have taken in the world's history j-ou will see when I remind you that the island of 
Salamis produced Solon, and that the island of Chios produced Homer, and the island of 
Samos produced Pythagoras and the island of Coos produced Hippocrates. 

But there is one island that I longed to see more than any other. I can afford to miss 
the princes among the islands, but I must see the king of the Archipelago. The one I 
longed to see is not so many miles in circumference as Cyprus or Crete or Paros or Naxos 
or Scio or Mitylene, but I would rather, in this sail through the Grecian Archipelago, see 
that than all the others ; for more of the glories of heaven landed there than on all the 
islands and continents since the world stood. As we come toward it I feel my pulses 
quicken. " I, John, was in the island that is called Patmos." It is a pile of rocks twenty- 
eight miles in circumference. A few cypresses and inferior olives pump a living out of the 
earth, and one palm tree spreads its foliage. But the barrenness and gloom and loneliness 
of the island made it a prison for the banished evangelist. Domitian could not stand his 
ministry and one day, under armed guard, that minister of the Gospel stepped from a tossing 
"boat to these dismal rocks, and walked up to the dismal cavern which was to be his home 
and the place where should pass before him all the conflicts of coming time and all the 
raptures of a coming eternity. Is it not remarkable that nearh' all the great revelations of 
music and poetry and religion have been made to men in banishment ! — Homer and Milton 
banished into blindness ; Beethoven banished into deafness ; Dante writing his Divina 
Commedia during the nineteen years of banishment from his native land ; Victor Hugo 
writing his Les Miserables exiled from home and coiantry on the island of Guernsey, and 
the brightest visions of the future have been given to those who by sickness or sorrow were 
exiled from the outer world into rooms of suffering. Only those who have been imprisoned 
by very hard surroundings have had great revelations made to them. So Patmos, wild, 
chill and bleak and terrible, was the best island in all the Archipelago, the best place in all 
the earth for divine revelations. Before a panorama can be successfully seen, the room in 
which you sit must be darkened, and in the presence of John was to pass such a panorama 
as no man ever before saw or ever will see in this world, and hence ' the gloom of his 
surroundings was a help rather than a hindrance. All' the surroundings of the place 
affected St. John's imagery when he speaks of heaven. St. John, hungry from enforced 
abstinence, or having no food except that at which his appetite revolted, thinks of heaven ; 
and as the famished man is apt to dream of bountiful tables covered with luxuries, so St. 
John says of the inhabitants of heaven, " They shall hunger no more." Scarcity of fresh 
water on Patmos, and the hot tongue of St. John's thirst leads him to admire heaven as he 
says, "They shall thirst no more." St. John hears the waves of the sea wildly dashing 
against the rocks, and each wave has a voice and all the waves together make a chorus and 
they remind him of the multitudinous anthems of heaven ; and he says, " They are like 
the voice of many waters." One day, as he looked off upon the sea, the waters were very 
smooth, as it was the day we sailed them, and they were like glass and the sunlight seemed 



358 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

to set them on fire, and there was a mingling of white light and intense flame ; and as 
St. John looked out from his cavern home upon that brilliant sea, he thought of the 
splendors of heaven and describes them " as a sea of glass mingled with fire." Yes, seated 
in the dark cavern of Patnios, though homesick and hungry and loaded with Domitian's 
anathemas, St. John was the most fortunate man on earth because of the panorama that 
passed before the mouth of that cavern. 

Turn down all the lights that we may better see it. The panorama passes, and lo ! the 
conquering Christ, robed, girdled, armed, the flash of golden candlesticks, and seven stars in 
His right hand, candlesticks and stars meaning light held up and light scattered. And 
there passes a throne and Christ on it, and the seals are broken, and the woes sounded, and 
a dragon slain, and seven last plagues swoop, and seven vials are poured out, and the vision 
vanishes. And we halt a moment to rest from the exciting spectacle. Again the panorama 
moves on before the cavern of Patmos, and John the exile sees a great city representing all 
abominations, Babylon towered, palaced, templed, fountained, foliaged, sculjDtured, hanging- 
gardened, suddenly going crash ! crash ! and the pipers cease to pipe, and the trumpets 
cease to trumpet, and the dust and the smoke and the horror fill the canvas, while from 
above and beneath are voices announcing, " Babylon is fallen, is fallen ! " And we halt 
again to rest from the spectacle. Again the panorama moves on before the cavern of 
Patmos, and John the exile beholds a city of gold, and a river more beautiful than the 
Rhine or the Hudson rolls through it, and fruit trees bend their burdens on either bank, 
and all is surrounded by walls in which the upholstery of autumnal forests, and the sunrises 
and sunsets of all the ages, and the glory of burning worlds seem to be commingled. And 
the inhabitants never breathe a sigh, or utter a groan, or discuss a difference, or frown a 
dislike, or weep a tear. The fashion they wear is pure white, and their foreheads are 
encircled by garlands, and they who were sick are well, and they who were old are young, 
and they who were bereft are reunited. And as the last figure of that panorama rolled out 
of sight, I think that John must have fallen back into his cavern, nerveless and exhausted. 
Too much was it for human eye to look at. Too much was it for human strength to 
experience. 

As on that day in the Grecian Archipelago, Patmos began to fade out of sight, I 
walked to the stern of the ship that I might keep my eye on the enchantment as long as I 
could, and the voice that sounded out of heaven to John the exile in the cavern on Patmos 
seemed sounding in the waters that dashed against the side of our ship : " Behold, the 
tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, 
and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall 
there be any more pain : for the fonner things are passed away." 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



OUR next landing was at Smyrna, a city of Asiatic Turkey. One of the seven 
churches of Asia once stood here. You read in Revelation, " To the church in 
Smyrna write." It is a city that has often been shaken by earthquake, swept 
by conflagration, blasted by plagues, and butchered by war, and here Bishop 
Polycarp stood in a crowded amphitheatre, and when he was asked to give up the advocacy 
of the Christian religion and save himself from martyrdom, the pro-consul saying, " Swear 
and I release thee ; reproach Christ," replied : " Eighty and six years have I served Him, 
and He never did me wrong ; how then can I revile my King and Saviour ? " When he 
was brought to the fires into which he was about to be thrust, and the officials were about 
to fasten him to the stake, he said : " Let me remain as I am, for He who giveth me strength 
to sustain the fire will enable me also, without your securing me with nails, to remain 
unmoved in the fire." History says the fires refused to consume him ; and under the winds 
the flames bent outward so that they did not touch his person, and therefore he was slain 
by swords and spears. One cypress bending over his grave is the only monument to Bishop 
Polycarp. 

But we are on the way to the city of Ephesus. We must see Ephesus — associated 
with the most wonderful apostolic scenes. We hire a special railway train, and in about an 
hour and a half we arrive at the city of Ephesus, which was called "The Great Metropolis 
of Asia," and "One of the Eyes of Asia," and "The Empress of Ionia," the capital of 
all learning and magnificence. Here, as I said, was one of the seven churches of Asia, and 
first of all we visit the ruins of that church where once an Ecumenical Council of two 
thousand ministers of religion was held. 

Mark the fulfillment of the prophecy ! Of the seven churches of Asia, four were 
commended in the book of Revelation and three were doomed. The cities having the 
four commended churches still stand ; the cities having the three doomed churches are 
wiped out. It occurred just as the Bible said it would occur. Drive on and you come to 
the theatre, which was six hundred and sixty feet from wall to wall, capable of holding 
fifty-six thousand seven hundred spectators. Here and there the walls arise almost unbroken, 
but for the most part the building is down. Just enough of it is left to help the imagination 
build it up as it was when those audiences shouted and clapped at some great spectacle. 
Their huzzas must have b'een enough to stun the heavens. Standing there, we could not 
forget that in that building once assembled a throng riotous for Paul's condemnation, 
because what he preached collided with the idolatry of their national goddess. Paul tried to 
get into that theatre and address the excited multitude, but his friends held him back lest 
he be torn in pieces by the mob, and the recorder of the city had to read the Riot Act 
among the people who had shrieked for two mortal hours, till their throats were sore and 
they were black in the face, " Great is Diana of the Ephesians." 

(359) 



360 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



Now we step into the Stadium. Enough of its walls and appointments is left to show 
■what a stupendous place it must have been when used for foot races and for fights with wild 
beasts. It was a building six hundred and eighty feet long and two hundred feet 
wide. Paul refers to what transpired there in the way of spectacle when he says, 
"We have been made a spectacle." Yes, Paul says, "I have fought with beasts at 
Ephesus," an expression usually taken as figurative, but I suppose it was literall}' 
true, for one of the amusements in that Stadium was to put a disliked man in the arena 
with a hungry lion or tiger or panther, and. let the fight go on until either the man 
or the beast or both were slain. And was there ever a more unequal combat proposed ? 
Paul, according to tradition, small, crooked-backed and weak-eyed, but the grandest 




EPHESUS RESTORED. 

man in sixty centuries, is led to the centre, as the people shout, " There he comes, the 
preacher who has nearly ruined our religion. The lion will make but a brief mouthful 
of him." It is plain that all the sympathies of that crowd are with the lion. In one 
of the underground rooms I hear the growl of the wild beasts. They have been kept 
for several days without food or water, in order that they may be especially ravenous and 
bloodthirsty. What chance is there for Paul ? But you cannot tell by a man's size or 
looks how stout a blow he can strike or how keen a blade he can thrust. Witness, heaven 
and earth and hell, this struggle of Paul with a wild beast. The coolest man in the Sta- 
dium is Paul. What has he to fear? He has defied all the powers, earthly and infernal, 
and if his body tumble under the foot and tooth of the wild beast, his soul will only the 
sooner find disenthralment. But it is his duty, as far as possible, to preserve his life. Now 




(361) 



362 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

I hear the bolt of the wild beast's door shove back, and the whole audience rise to their 
feet as the fierce brute springs for the arena and toward its small occupant. But the little 
missionary has his turn of making attack, and with a few well-directed thrusts the monster 
lies dead in the dust of the arena, and the apostle puts his right foot on the lion and shakes 
him, and then puts his left foot on him and shakes him — a scene which Paul afterward 
uses for an illustration when he wants to show how Christ will triumph over death : " He 
must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet ; " yes, under His feet. Paul told the 
literal truth when he said, " I have fought with beasts at Ephesus," and as the plural is used 
I think he had more than one such fight, or several beasts were let loose upon him at one 
time. As we stood that day in the middle of the Stadium and looked around at the great 
structure the whole scene came back upon us. 

But, we pass out of the Stadium, for we are in haste for other places of interest in 
Ephesus. To add to the excitement of the day one of our party was missing. No inan is 
safe in that region alone unless he be armed and know how to take sure aim and not miss 
fire. Our companion had gone out on some explorations of his own, and through the gate 
where Paul had walked again and again, yet where no man unaccompanied should venture 
now. But, after some time had passed, and every minute seemed as long as an hour, and 
we had time to imagine everything horrible in the way of robbery and assassination, the 
lost traveler appeared, to receive from our entire party a volley of expostulation for the 
arousal of so many anxieties. 

In the midst of this cit)- of Ephesus once floated an artificial lake, brilliant with painted 
boats and through the River Caystros it was connected with the sea, and ships from all 
parts of the known earth floated in and out carrying on a commerce which made Ephesus 
the envy of the world. Great was Ephesiis ! Its gymnasia, its hippodrome, its odeon, its 
athenaeum, its forum, its aqueducts (whose skeletons are still, strewn along the city), its 
towers, its castle of Hadrian, its monument of Androclus, its quarries, which were the 
granite cradle of cities ; its temples, built to Apollo, to Minerva, to Neptune, to Mercuiy, 
to Bacchus, to Hercules, to Csesar, to Fortune, to Jupiter Olympus. That which history and 
poetrj' and chisel and canvas have not presented, has come up at the call of archaeologists' 
powder-blast and crowbar. 

But I have now to unveil the chief wonder of this chief est of cities. In 1863, imder 
the patronage of the English Government, Mr. Wood, the explorer, began at Ephesus to 
feel along under the ground at great depths for roads, for walls, for towers, and here it is — 
that for which Ephesus was more celebrated than all else besides — the Temple of the God- 
dess Diana, called the sixth wonder of the world ; and we stood awhile amid the ruins of 
that temple, measuring its pillars, transfixed by its sculpture, and confounded at what was 
the greatest temple of idolatry in all time. As I sat on a piece of one of its fallen columns, 
I said, " What earthquake rocked it down, or what hurricane pushed it to the earth, or 
under what strong wind of centuries did the giant struggle and fall ? " There have been 
seven temples of Diana, the ruins of each contributing something for the splendor of all 
its architectural successors. Two hundred and twenty years was this last temple in con- 
struction. Twice as long as the United States has stood was that temple in building. It 
was nearly twice as large as St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Lest it should be disturbed by 
earthquakes, which have always been fond of making those regions their play-ground, the 
temple was built on a marsh, which was made firm by layers of charcoal covered by fleeces 
of wool. The stone came from the quarry near-by. After it was decreed to build the 
temple, it. was thought it would be necessary to bring the building stone from other lands, 




STATUE OF DIANA IN THE EPHESIAN TEMPtB. 



(363) 



364 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

but one day a shepherd by the name of Pixodorus, while watching his flocks, saw two 
rams fighting, and as they missed the interlocking of their horns and one fell, his horn 
knocked a splinter from the rock and showed by that splinter the lustrous whiteness of the 
rock. The shepherd ran to the city with a piece of that stone, which revealed a quarry 
from which place the temple was built, and every month in all ages since, the mayor of 
Ephesus goes to that quarry to offer sacrifices to the memory of that shepherd who discov- 
ered this source of splendor and wealth for the cities of Asia Minor. In removing the 
great stones from the quarry to their destined places in the temple, it was necessary, in 
order to keep the wheels, which were twelve feet in diameter, from sinking deep into the 
earth under the unparalleled heft, that a frame of timbers be arranged over which the 
wheels rolled. To put the immense block of marble in its place over the doorway of one 
of these temples was so vast and difficult an undertaking that the architect at one time 
gave it up, and in his chagrin intended suicide ; but one night in his sleep he dreamt that 
the stone had settled to the right place, and the next day he found that the great block of 
marble had by its own weight settled to the right place. The Temple of Diana was four 
hundred and twenty-five feet long by two hundred and twent)^ feet wide. All Asia was 
taxed to pay for it. It had one hundred and twenty-seven pillars, each sixty feet high, and 
each the gift of a king and inscribed with the name of the donor. Now you see the mean- 
ing of that passage in Revelation, just as a king presenting one of these pillars to the Tem- 
ple of Diana had his own name chiseled on it and the name of his own country, so says 
Christ : " Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and I will 
write t:pon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New 
Jerusalem, and I will write upon him my new name." How suggestive and beautiful ! 

In addition to those pillars that I climbed over while amid the ruins of Diana's 
Temple, I saw afterward eight of those pillars in Constantinople, to which city they had 
been removed, and are now a part of the Mosque of St. Sophia. Those eight columns are 
all green jasper, but some of those which stood in Diana's Temple at Ephesus were fairly 
drenched with brilliant colors. Costly metals stood up in various parts of the temple, 
where they could catch the fullest flush of the sun. A flight of stairs was carved out of one 
grape vine. Doors of C3'press wood which had been kept in glue for j-ears and bordered 
with bronze in bas-relief, swung against pillars of brass, and resounded with echo iipon echo, 
caught up, and sent on, and hurled back through the corridors. In that building stood an 
image of Diana, the goddess. The impression was abroad, as the Bible records, that that 
image dropped plumb out of heaven into that temple, and the sculptors who really made 
the statue or image were put to death, so that they could not testify of its manufacture and 
so deny its celestial origin. But the material out of which the image of Diana was fash- 
ioned contradicts that notion. This image was carved out of ebony and punctured here 
and there with openings kept full of spikenard so as to hinder the statue from decaying 
and make it aromatic, but this ebony was covered with bronze and alabaster. A necklace 
of acorns coiled gracefully around her. There were four lions on each arm, typical of 
strength. Her head was coronetted. Around this figure stood statues which by wonderful 
invention shed tears. The air by strange machinery was damp with descending perfumes. 
The walls multiplied the scene by concaved mirrors. Fountains tossed in sheaves of light 
and fell in showers of diamonds. One painting in that temple cost $193,750. The treas- 
ures of all nations and the spoils of kingdoms were kept here for safe deposit. Criminals 
from all lands fled to the shelter of this temple, and the law could not touch them. It 
seemed almost strange that this mountain of architectural snow outside did not melt with 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



365 



the fires of color within. The temple was surrounded with groves, in which roamed for 
the temptation of hunters, stags and hares and wild boars, and all styles of game, whether 
winged or four-footed. There was a cave with statue so intensely brilliant that it extin- 
guished the eyes of those who looked upon it, iinless, at the command of the priests, the 
hand of the spectator somewhat shaded the eyes. No wonder that even Anthony and 
Alexander and Darius cried out in the words of my text : " Great is Diana of the Ephe- 
sians." 

One month of each year, the month of May, was devoted to her worship. Processions 
in garbs of purple and violet and scarlet moved through the temple, and there were torches, 




WHIRLING DERVISHES OP CONSTANTINOPLE. 
Dervish is a Persian word signifying poor, but among Mohaniniedans it is a desiguatiou of a religions class corresponding to 
Monks in Christian countries. Their devotional exercises consist in meetings for worship, prayers, mortifications and dances. These 
latter are confined to turning around for a long while, the whirling movement being continued at times for as much as an hour. 

and anthems, and choirs in white, and timbrels and triangles in music, sacrifices and dances. 
Here young men and maidens were betrothed with imposing ceremony. Nations voted 
large amounts to meet the expense of the worship. Fisheries of vast resource were devoted 
to the support of this resplendence. Horace and Virgil and Homer went into rhapsodies 
while describing this worship. All artists, all archaeologists, all centuries agreed in saying, 
" Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Paul in the presence of this Temple of Diana incor- 
porates it in his figures of speech while speaking of the spiritual temple : " Now, if any 



366 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, etc.," and no doubt with refer- 
ence to one of the previous temples which had been set on fire by Herostratus just for the 
fame of destroying it, Paul says : " If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, 
etc.," and all up and down Paul's writings you realize that he had not only seen, but had 
been mightily impressed with what he had seen of the Temple of Diana. 

In this city the mother of Jesus was said to have been buried. Here dwelt Aquila and 
Priscilla of Bible mention, who were professors in an extemporized theological seminary, 
and they taught the eloquent Apollos how to be eloquent for Christ. Here John preached, 
and from here because of his fidelity he was exiled to Patnios. Here Paul warred against 
the magical arts for which Ephesus was famous. The sorcerers of this city pretended that 
they could cure diseases and perform almost any miracle, by pronouncing these senseless 
words: " Aski Cataski Lix Tetrax Damnameneus Aision." Paul having performed a 
miracle in the name of Jesus, there was a lying family of seven brothers who imitated the 

apostle, and instead of their 




usual words of incantation, 
used the word Jesus over a 
man who was possessed of a 
devil, and the man possessed 
flew at them in great fierce- 
ness and nearl}' tore these 
frauds to pieces, and in con- 
sequence all up and down 
the streets of Ephesus there 
was indignation excited 
against the magical arts, and 
a great bonfire of magical 
books was kindled in the 
streets, and the people stirred 
the blaze until thirty-five 
thousand' dollars' worth of 
black art literature was 
burned to ashes. 

But all the glory of 
Ephesus I have described has gone now. At some seasons of the year awful malarias 
sweep over the place and put upon mattress or in graves a large portion of the population. 
In the approximate marshes scorpions, centipedes and all forms of reptilian life crawl 
and hiss and sting, while hyenas and jackals at night slink in and out of the I'uins of 
buildings which once startled the nations with their almost supernatural grandeur. 

But here is a lesson which has never yet been drawn out. Do you not see in that 
Temple of Diana an expression of what the world needs ? It wants a God who can .provide 
food. Diana was a huntress. In pictures on many of the coins she held a stag by a horn 
with one hand and a bundle of arrows in the other. Oh, this is a hungry world ! Diana 
could not give one pound of meat or one mouthful of food to the millions of her wor- 
shipers. She was a dead divinity, an imaginary God, and so in idolatrous lands the vast 
majority of people never have enough to eat. It is only in the countries where the God of 
heaven and earth is worshiped that the vast majority have enough to eat. Let Diana 
have her arrows and her hounds ; our God has the sunshine and the showers and the 



RUINS OF THE GYMNASIUM, EPHESUS, 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



367 



harvests, and in proportion as He is worshiped does plenty reign. So also in the Temple of 
Diana the world expressed its need of a refuge. To it from all parts of the land came 
debtors who could not pay their debts and the offenders of the law, that they might escape 
incarceration. But she sheltered them only a little while, and while she kept them from 
arrest she could not change their hearts and the guilty remained guilty. But our God in 
Jesus Christ is a sure refuge into which we may fly from all our sins and all our pursuers, 
and not only be safe for time but safe for eternity, and the guilt is pardoned and the nature 
is transformed. What Diana could not do for her worshipers, our Christ accomplishes 
for us. 

' ' Rock of ages cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in thee. " 

Then, in that temple were deposited treasures from all the earth for safe keeping. 
Chrysostom says it was the treasure-house of nations ; they brought gold and silver and 




ANCIPJNT CORINTH— RESTORED. 

Corinth was a magnificent city situated on the isthmus which connected Hellas with the Peloponnesus, and was defended by 
the strongest natural citadel in all Europe. The city itself lay on a broad level rock nearly 200 feet above the isthmus, and became 
leagued with Greece 395 B. C. It was in Corinth that St. Paul planted the first Christian church, to which he addressed two epistles. 

precious stones and coronets from across the sea, and put them under the care of Diana of 
the Ephesians. But, again and again were those treasures ransacked, captured or destroyed. 
Nero robbed them, the Scythians scattered them, the Goths burned them. Diana failed 
those who trusted her with treasures, but our God, to Him we may entrust all our treasures 
for this world and the next, and fail any one who puts confidence in Him He never will. 
After the- last jasper column has fallen and the last temple on earth has gone into ruins and 
the world itself has suffered demolition, the Lord will keep for us our best treasures. 

But, notice what killed Ephesus, and what has killed most of the cities that lie buried 
in the cemetery of nations. Luxury ! The costly baths, which had been the means of 
health to the city, became its ruin. Instead of the cold baths that had been the invigoration 



368 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

of the people, the hot baths, which are only intended for the infirm or the invalid, 
were substituted. In these hot baths many lay most of the time. Authors wrote books 
while in these baths. Business was neglected and a hot bath taken four or five times a day. 
When the keeper of the baths was reprimanded for not having them warm enough, one of 
the rulers said : " You blame him for not making the bath warm enough ; I blame you 
because you have it warm at all." But that warm bath, which enervated Ephesus and 
which is always enervating except when followed by cold baths (no reference, of course, to 
delicate constitutions), was only a type of what went on in all departments of Ephesian 
life, and in luxurious indulgence Ephesus fell, and the last triangle of music was tinkled in 
Diana's Temple, and the last wrestler disappeared from her gymnasiums, and the last racer 
took his garland in the Stadium, and the last plea was heard in her Forum, and, even the 
sea, as if to withdraw the last commercial opportunity from that metropolis, retreated down 
the beach, leaving her without the harbor in which had floated a thousand ships. Brooklyn, 
New York, L,ondon and all modern cities, cis-Atlantic and trans-Atlantic ! take warning. 
What luxury unguarded did for Ephesus luxury unguarded may do for all. Opulence and 
splendor God grant to all the people, to all the cities, to all the lands, but at the same time, 
may He grant the righteous use of them. 

Gymnasiums ? Yes, but see that the vigor gained in them be consecrated to God. 
Magnificent temples of worship ? Yes, but see that in them instead of conventionalities 
and cold pomp of service, there be warmth of devotion and the pure Gospel preached. Im- 
posing court houses ? Yes, but in them let justice and mercy rule. Palaces of journalism ? 
Yes, but let all of the printing presses be marshaled for happiness and truth. Great post- 
office buildings? Yes, but through them day by day, may correspondence helpful, elevating 
and moral pass. Ornate dwelling-houses ? Yes, but in them let there be altars of devotion, 
and conjugal, filial, paternal and Christian fidelity rule. London for magnitude, Berlin for 
universities, Paris for fashions, Rome for cathedrals, Athens for classics, Thebes for hiero- 
glyphics, Memphis for tombs, Babylon for gardens, Ephesus for idolatry, but what shall be 
the characteristics of our American cities when the}'- shall have attained their full stature ? 
Would that " Holiness to the Lord " might be inscribed upon all our municipalities. One 
thing is certain, and that is, that all idolatry must come down. When the greatest goddess 
of the earth, Diana, enshrined in the greatest temple that ever stood, was prostrated at 
Ephesus, it was a prophecy of the overthrow of all the idolatries that have cursed the earth, 
and anything we love more than God is an idol, and there is as much idolatry in the nine- 
teenth century as in the first, and in America as in Asia. 

As our train pulled out from the station at Ephesus, the cars surrounded by the worst 
looking group of villains I ever gazed on, all of them seeming in a wrangle with each other 
and tr}-ing to get into a wrangle with us, and we moved along the columns of ancient 
aqueducts, each column crowned with storks, having built their nests there, and we rolled on 
down toward Sm3-rna, and that night in a sailors' Bethel, we spoke of the Christ whom the 
world must know or perish, we felt that between cradle and grave there could not be any- 
thing much more enthralling for body, mind and soul, than our visit to Ephesus. 



CHAPTER XL. 

THE CROWN OF GREECE. 

IT seemed as if morning would never come. We had arrived after dark in Athens, 
Greece, and the night was sleepless with expectation, and my watch slowly 
announced to me one and two and three and four o'clock ; and at the first ray 
of dawn, I called our party to look out of the window upon that city to which 
Paul said he was a debtor, and to which the whole earth is debtor for Greek architecture, 
Greek sculpture, Greek poetry, Greek eloquence, Greek prowess and Greek history'. That 
morning in Athens we sauntered forth armed with most generous and lovely letters from 
the President of the United States and his Secretary of State, and during all our stay in that 
city those letters caused every door and every gate and every temple and every palace to swing- 
open before us. The mightiest geographical name on earth to-day is America. The signa- 
ture of an American President and Secretary of State will take a man where an army could 
not. Those names brought us into the presence of a most gracious and beautiful sovereign, 
the Queen of Greece, and her cordiality was more like that of a sister than the occupant of 
a throne-room. No formal bow as when monarchs are approached, but a cordial shake of 
the hand, and earnest questions about our personal welfare and our beloved country far 
away. But this morning we pass through where stood the Agora, the ancient market-place, 
the locality where philosophers used to meet their disciples, walking while they talked, and 
where Paul the Christian logician flung many a proud Stoic, and got the laugh on many an 
impertinent Epicurean. The market-place was the centre of social and political life, and it 
was the place where people went to tell and hear the news. Booths and bazaars were set up 
for merchandise of all kinds, except meat, but everything must be sold for cash, and there 
must be no lying about the value of commodities, and the Agoranomi who ruled the place 
could inflict severe punishment upon offenders. The difierent schools of thinkers had 
distinct places set apart for convocation. The Plataeans must meet at the cheese market, the 
Decelians at the barber shop, the sellers of perfumes at the frankincense headquarters. The 
market- place was a space three hundred and fifty yards long and two hundred and fifty 
wide, and it was given up to gossip and merchandise, and lounging, and philosophizing. 
All this you need to know in order to understand the Bible when it says of Paul, " There- 
fore disputed he in the market daily with them that met him." You see it was the best 
place to get an audience, and if a man feels himself called to preach he wants people to 
preach to. But before we make our chief visits we must take a turn at the Stadium. It 
is a little way out, but go we must. The Stadium was the place where the foot-races 
occurred. 

Paul had been out there, no doubt, for he frequentl}^ uses the scenes of that place as 

figures, when he tells us, " Let us run the race that is set before us," and again, " They do 

it to obtain a corruptible garland, but we an incorruptible." The marble and the gilding 

have been removed, but the high mounds against which the seats were piled are still 

24 (369) 



37° 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



there. The Stadium is six hundred and eighty feet long, one hundred and thirty feet wide, 
and held forty thousand spectators. There is to-day the very tunnel through which the 
defeated racer departed from the Stadium and from the hisses of the people, and there are the 
stairs up which the victor went to the top of the hill to be crowned with the laurel. In 
this place contests with wild beasts sometimes took place, and while Hadrian, the 
emperor, sat on yonder height, one thousand beasts were slain in one celebration. But 
it was chiefly for foot-racing, and so I proposed to my friend that day while we were in 
the Stadium that we try which of us could run the sooner from end to end of this his- 
torical ground, and so at the word given by the lookers-on we started side by side, but 
before I got through I found out what Paul meant when he compares the spiritual race 




PAUr, EXHORTING FEI,IX. 



-with the race in this very Stadium, as he says, " I^ay aside every weight." My heavy over- 
coat and my friend's freedom from such encumbrance showed the advantage in any kind 
■of a race of laying aside " every weight." 

We come now to the Acropolis. It is a rock about two mjles in circumference at the 
base and a thousand feet in circumference at the top, and three hundred feet high. On it 
has been crowded more elaborate architecture and sculpture than in any other place under 
the whole heavens. Originally a fortress, afterward a congregation of temples and statues 
and pillars, their ruins an enchantment from which no observer ever breaks away. No 
wonder that Aristides thought it the centre of all things — Greece, the centre of the world ; 



372 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



Attica, the centre of Greece ; Athens, the centre of Attica, and the Acropolis, the centre of 
Athens. Earthquakes have shaken it ; Verres plundered it. Lord Elgin, the English 
ambassador at Constantinople, got permission of the Sultan to remove from the Acropolis 
fallen pieces of the building, but he took from the building to England the finest statues, 
removing them at an expense of eight hundred thousand dollars. A storm overthrew 
many of the statues of the Acropolis. Morosini, the general, attempted to remove from a 
pediment the sculptured car and horses of Victory, but the clumsy machinery dropped it, 
and all was lost. The Turks turned the building into a powder magazine, where the 
Venetian guns dropped a fire that by explosion sent the columns flying in the air and 
falling cracked and splintered. But after all that time and storm and war and icono- 
clasm have effected, the Acropolis is the monarch of all ruins, and -before it bow the 

learning, the geni- 
us, the poetiy, the 
art, the history of 
the ages. I saw it 
as it was thousands 
of years ago. I had 
read so much about 
it and dreamed so 
much about it, that 
I needed no magi- 
cian's wand to re- 
store it. At one 
wave of my hand 
on that clear, bright 
morning it rose be- 
fore me in the glory 
it had when Peri- 
cles ordered it, and 
Ictinus planned it, 
and Phidias chis- 
eled it, and Proto- 
genes painted it, 
and Pausanias des- 
cribed it. Its gates, 

which were carefully guarded by the ancients, open to let you in, and you ascend by sixty 
marble steps to the Propylsea, which Epaminondas wanted to transfer to Thebes, but 
permission, I am glad to sa}'^, could not be granted for the removal of this architectural 
miracle. In the days wlien ten cents would do more than a dollar now, the building 
cost two million three hundred thousand dollars. See its five ornamented gates, the 
keys entrusted to an officer for only one day lest the temptation to go in and mis- 
appropriate the treasures be too great for him ; its ceiling a mingling of blue and scarlet 
and green, and the walls abloom with pictures utmost in thought and coloring. Yonder 
is a a temple to a goddess called " Victory Without Wings." So many of the triumphs 
of the world had been followed by defeat that the Greeks wished in marble to indicate 
that victory for Athens had come never again to fly away, and hence this temple to 
" Victory Without Wings," — a temple of marble, snow-white and glittering. Yonder behold 




VIEW OF THE ACROPOLIS, ATHENS. 



THE WORLD AS vSEEN TO-DAY. 



373 



the pedestal of Agrippa, twenty-seven feet high and twelve feet square. But the over- 
shadowing wonder of all the hill is the Parthenon. In days when money was ten times 
more valuable than now, it cost four million six hundred thousand dollars. It is a 
Doric grandeur, having forty-six columns, each column thirty-four feet high and six feet 
two inches in diameter. Wondrous intercolumniations ! Painted porticoes, architraves 
tinged with ochre, shields of gold hung up, lines of most delicate curve, figures of horses 
and men and women and gods, oxen on the way to sacrifice, statues of the deities ; 
Dionysius, Prometheus, Hermes, Demeter, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon ; in one frieze twelve 
divinities ; centaurs in battle ; weaponry from Marathon ; chariot of night ; chariot of 
the morning ; horses of the sun, the fates, the furies ; statue of Jupiter holding in his 
right hand the thunderbolt ; silver-footed chair in which Xerxes watched the battle 
of Salamis, only a few miles away. 
Here is the colossal statue of Min- 
erva in full armor, eyes of gray- 
colored stone ; figure of a Sphinx 
on her head, griffins bj- her side 
(which are lions with eagle's beak), 
spear in one hand, statue of L,iberty 
in the other, a shield carved with 
battle scenes, and even the slippers 
sculptured and tied on with thongs 
of gold. Far out at sea the sailors 
saw this statue of Minerva rising 
high above all the temples, glitter- 
ing in the sun. Here are statues of 
equestrians, statue of a lioness, and 
there are the Graces, and yonder a 
horse in bronze. There is a statue 
said in the time of Augustus to 
have of its own accord turned 
around from east to west and spit 
blood ; statues made out of shields 
conquered in battle ; statue of 
Apollo, the expeller of locusts ; statue of Anacreon, drunk and singing ; statue of Olympio- 
dorus, a Greek, memorable for the fact that he was cheerful when others were cast down, 
a trait worthy of sculpture. But, walk on and around the Acropolis, and yonder you see 
a statue of H5'giea, and the statue of Theseus fighting the Minotaur and the statue of 
Hercules slaying serpents. No wonder that Petronius said it was easier to find a god than 
a man in Athens. Oh, the Acropolis ! The most of its temples and statues made from the 
marble quarries of Mount Pentelicum a little way from the city. I have here on my table 
a block of the Parthenon made out of this marble, and on it is the sculpture of Phidias. I 
brought it from the Acropolis. This specimen has on it the dust of ages, and the marks of 
explosion and battle, but you can get from it some idea of the delicate lustre of the 
Acropolis when it was covered with a mountain of this marble cut into all the 
exquisite shapes that genius could contrive, and striped with silver and aflame with 
gold. The Acropolis in the morning light of those ancients must have shOne as 
though it were an aerolite cast off from the noonday sun. The temples nuist have 




PAUL DISCOURSING WITH AOUILA AND PRISCILLA. 



374 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

looked like petrified foam. The whole Acropolis must have seemed like the white 
breakers of the great ocean of time. 

But we cannot stop longer here, for there is a hill near-by of more interest, though it 
has not one chip of marble to suggest a statue or a temple. We hasten down the Acropolis 
to ascend the Areopagus, or Mars Hill, as it is called. It took only about three minutes to 
walk the distance, and the two hill-tops are so near that what I said in religious discourse 
on Mars Hill was heard distinctly by some English gentlemen on the Acropolis. This 
Mars Hill is a rough pile of rock fifty feet high. It was famous long before New Testa- 
ment times. The Persians easily and terribly assaulted the Acropolis from this hill top. 
Here assembled the court to try criminals. It was held in the night time, so that the faces 
of the judges could not be seen, nor the faces of the lawyers who made the plea, and so^ 
instead of a trial being one of emotion, it must have been one of cool justice. But there 
was one occasion on this hill memorable above all others. A little man, physically weak, 
and his rhetoric, described by himself as contemptible, had by his sermons rocked Athens 
with commotion, and he was summoned either by writ of law or hearty invitation to come 
upon that pulpit of rock and give a specimen of his theology. All the wiseacres of Athens 
turned out and turned up to hear him. The more venerable of them sat in an amphi- 
theatre, the granite seats of which are still visible, but the other people swarmed on all 
sides of the hill and at the base of it to hear this man, whom some called a fanatic, and 
others called a madcap, and others a blasphemer, and others styled contemptuously " this 
fellow." In that audience were the first orators of the world, and they had voices like 
flutes when thej' were passive and like trumpets when they were aroused, and I think they 
laughed in the sleeves of their gowns as this insignificant-looking man rose to speak. In 
that audience were Scholiasts, who knew everything, or thought they did, and from the end 
of the longest hair on the top of their craniums to the end of the nail on the longest toe, 
they were stuffed with hypercriticism, and they leaned back with a supercilious look to 
listen. As that day I stood on that rock where Paul stood, and a slab of which I brought 
from Athens by consent of the Queen, through Mr. Tricoupis, the prime minister, and had 
placed in the memorial wall of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, I read the whole story, Bible in hand. 

What I have so far said, was necessary in order that you may understand the boldness, 
the defiance, the holy recklessness, the magnificence of Paul's speech. The first thunder- 
bolt he launched at the opposite hill — the Acropolis — that moment all aglitter with idols and 
temples. He cries out, "God who made the world." Why, they thought that Prometheus 
made it, that Mercury made it, that Apollo made it, that Poseidon made it, that Eros made it, 
that Pandrocus made it, that Boreas made it, that it took all the gods of the Parthenon, yea, 
all the gods and goddesses of the Acropolis to make it, and here stands a man without any 
ecclesiastical title, neither a D. D., nor even a reverend, declaring that the world was made 
by the Lord of heaven and earth, and hence the inference that all the splendid covering of 
the Acropolis, so near that the people standing on the steps of the Parthenon could hear it, 
was a deceit, a falsehood, a sham, a blasphemy. Oh, Paul, stop for a moment and give 
these startled and overwhelmed aiiditors time to catch their breath ! Make a rhetorical 
pause ! Take a look around you at the interesting landscape, and give j^our hearers time 
to recover ! No, he does not make even a period, or so much as a colon or semi-colon, but 
launches the second thunderbolt right after the first, and in the. same breath goes on to say, 
"God dwelleth not in temples made with hands." Oh, Paul! is not deity more in the 
Parthenon, or more in the Theseum, or more in the Erechtheum, or more in the Temple 
of Zeus Olympius than in the open air, more than on the hill where we are sitting, more 



^1^ 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



than on Mount Hymettus out yonder, from which the bees get their honey. " No more ! " 
Tesponds Paul ; " He dwelleth not in temples made with hands." 

■ But surely the preacher on the pulpit of rock on Mars Hill will stop now. His audi- 
ence can endure no more. Two thunderbolts are enough. No, in the same breath he 
launches the third thunderbolt, which, to them, is more fiery, more terrible, more demol- 
ishing than the others, as he cries out, " Hath made of one blood all nations." Oh, Paul ! 
you forget you are speaking to the proudest and most exclusive audience in the world. Do 
not say " of one blood." You cannot mean that. Had Socrates, and Plato, and Demos- 
thenes, and Solon, and Lycurgus, and Draco, and Sophocles, and Euripides, and ^schylus, 
and Pericles, and Phidias, and Miltiades, blood just like the Persians, like the Turks, like 




FACADE OF THE PARTHENON, GREECE. 

The Parthenon was a marble temple in .Athens, dedicated to Minerva, Goddess of Wisdom, erected about 450 B. C, and is 
believed to have surpassed all other edifices ever erected by the hand of man. Upon the frieze was a sculptured representation of the 
sacred procession which took place every fifth year in Athens in honor of Minerva, which was so splendidly executed as to constitute 
the building's chief glory, 

the Egyptians, like the common herd of humanit}'? "Yes," says Paul, "of one blood, all 
nations." 

Surely that must be the closing paragraph of the sermon. His auditors must be let 
up from the nervous strain. Paul has smashed the Acropolis and smashed the national 
pride of the Greeks, and what more can he say ? Those Grecian orators, standing on that 
^lace, always closed their addresses with something sublime and climacteric, a peroration, 
and Paul is going to give them a peroration which will eclipse in power and majesty all 
that he has yet said. Heretofore he has hurled one thunderbolt at a time ; now, he will 
■close by hurling two at once — the two thunderbolts of Resurrection and Last Judgment. 
His closing words were : " Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



377 



the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained ; whereof He hath given 
assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." Remember those 
thoughts were to them novel and provocative : that Christ, the despised Nazarene, would 
come to be their judge, and they should have to get up out of their cemeteries to stand 
before Him and take their eternal doom. Mightiest burst of elocutionary power ever 
heard. At those two thoughts of Resurrection and Judgment, the audience sprang to their 
feet. Some moved they adjourn to some other day to hear more on the same theme, but 
others would have torn the sacred orator to pieces. The record says, "some mocked." I 
suppose it means that they mimicked the solemnity of his voice, that they took off his 
impassioned gesticulation, and they cried out : "Jew ! Jew ! Where did you study rhetoric? 
You ought to hear our orators speak ! You had better go back to your business of tent- 
making. Our Lycurgus knew more in a minute than you will know in a month. Say, 
where did you get 
that crooked back 
and those weak eyes 
from ? Ha ! Ha ! 
You try to teach us 
Grecians! What non- 
sense you talk about 
when you speak of 
Resurrection and 
Judgment. Now, 
little old man, climb 
down the side of 
Mars Hill and get 
out of sight as soon 
as possible." " Some 
mocked." But that 
scene adjourned to 
the day of which the 
sacred orator had 
spoken — the day oF 
Resurrection and 
Judgment. 

As in Athens, 
that evening w e 

climbed down the pile of slippery rocks, where all this had occurred, on our way back to- 
our hotel, I stood half way between the Acropolis and Mars Hill in the gathering 
shadows of eventide, I seemed to hear those two hills in sublime and awful converse. " I 
am chiefly of the past," said the Acropolis. " I am chiefly of the future," replied 
Mars Hill. The Acropolis said : " My orators are dead. My law-givers are dead. My 
poets are dead. My architects are dead. My sculptors are dead. I am a monument 
of the dead past. I shall never again hear a song sung. I shall never again see a 
column lifted. I shall never again behold a goddess crowned." Mars Hill responded : " I, 
too, have had a history. I had on my heights warriors who will never again unsheathe the- 
sword, and judges who will never again utter a doom, and orators who will never again 
make a plea. But my influence is to be more in the future than it ever was in the past. 




PRISON OF SOCRATES, ATHENS. 



378 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



Oh, Acropolis ! I have stood here long enough to witness that your gods are no gods at all. 
Your Boreas could not control the winds. Your Neptune could not manage the sea. Your 
Apollo never evoked a musical note. Your goddess Ceres never grew a harvest. Your 
goddess of wisdom, Minerva, never knew the Greek alphabet. Your Jupiter could not 
handle the lightnings. But the God whom I proclaimed on the day when Paul preached 
before the astounded assemblage on my rough heights, is the God of music, the God of 
wisdom, the God of power, the God of mercy, the God of love, the God of storms, the God 
of sunshine, the God of the land and, the God of the sea, the God over all, blessed forever." 
Then, the Acropolis spake and said, as though in self-defence : " My Plato argued for the 
immortality of the soul, and my Socrates praised virtue, and my Miltiades at Marathon 
drove back the Persian oppressors." " Yes," said Mars Hill, " your Plato laboriously 
guessed at the immortality of the soul, but my Paul, divinely inspired, declared it as a fact 
straight from God. Your Socrates praised virtue, but expired as a suicide. Your Miltiades 

was brave against earthly 
foes, yet died from a wound 
ignominiously gotten in 
after-defeat. But my Paul 
challenged all earth and all 
hell with this battle-shout, 
' We wi'cstle not against 
flesh and blood, but against 
principalities, against 
powers, against the rulers of 
the darkness of this world, 
against spiritual wickedness 
in high places,' and then, 
on the twenty-ninth of June, 
in the year 66, on the road 
to Ostia, after the sword 
of the headsman had given 
one keen stroke, took the 
crown of martyrdom." 
After a moment's silence 
by both hills, the Acropolis moaned out in the darkness, " Alas ! Alas ! " and Mars Hill 
responded, " Hosannah ! Hosannah ! " Then the voices of both hills became indistinct, 
and as I passed on and away in the twilight, I seemed to hear only two sounds — a fragment 
•of Pentelicon marble from the architrave of the Acropolis dropping down on the ruins of a 
shattered idol, and the other sound seemed to come from the rock on Mars Hill, from which 
we had just descended. But we were by this time so far off that the fragments of sentences 
were smaller when dropping from Mars Hill than were the fragments of fallen marble on 
the Acropolis, and I could only hear parts of disconnected sentences wafted on the night air 
— " God who made the world " — " of one blood all nations " — " appointed a day in which 
He will judge the world " — " raised Him from the dead." 

As that night in Athens I put my tired head on my pillow, and the exciting scenes 
•of the day passed through my mind, I thought on the same subject on which as 
a boy I made my commencement speech in Niblo's Theatre on graduation day from 
the New York University, viz : " The moral effects of sculpture and architecture," but 




theatre; of BACCHUS, seats of the judges, ATHENS. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



379 



further than I could have thought in boyhood, I thought in Athens that night that the 
moral effects of architecture and sculpture depend on what you do in great buildings after 
they are put up, and upon the character of the men whose forms you cut in the marble. 
Yea, I thought that night what struggles the martyrs went through in order that in our 
time the Gospel might have full swing ; and I thought that night what a brainy religion it 
must be that could absorb a hero like him whom we have considered to-day, a man the 
superior of the whole human race, the infidels but pigmies or homunculi compared with 
him ; and I thought what a rapturous consideration it is that through the same grace that 
saved Paul, we shall confront this great apostle, and shall have the opportunity, amid the 
familiarities of the skies, of asking him what was the greatest occasion of all his life. He 
may say, " The shipwreck of Melita." He may say, "The riot at Ephesus." He may say, 
•" My last walk out on the road to Ostia." But I think he will say, " The day I stood on 
Mars Hill addressing the indignant Areopagites, and looking off upon the towering form of 
the goddess Minerva, and the majesty of the Parthenon, and all the brilliant divinities of 
the Acropolis. That account in the Bible was true. My spirit was stirred within me when 
I saw the city wholly given up to idolatry." 




CHAPTER XLI. 

POMPEII. 

HFIyASH on the night sky greeted us as we stepped out of the rail train at 
Naples, Italy. What was the strange illumination ? It was that wrath of 
many centuries — Vesuvius. Giant son of an earthquake. Intoxicated moun- 
tain of Italy. Father of many consternations. A volcano, burning so long, 
and yet to keep on burning until, perhaps, it may be the very torch that will kindle the last 
conflagration and set all the world on fire. It eclipses in violence of behavior Cotopaxi and 
.^tna and Stromboli and Krakatoa. Awful mystery. Funeral pyre of dead cities. Ever- 
lasting paroxysm of mountains. It seems like a chimney of hell. It roars with fiery 
reminiscence of what it has done, and with threats of worse things that it may yet do. I 
would not live in one of the villages at its base for a present of all Italy. On a day in 
December, 1631, it threw iip ashes that floated away hundreds and hundreds of miles, and 
dropped in Constantinople and in the Adriatic Sea and on the Apennines, as well as tramp- 
ling out at its own foot the lives of eighteen thousand people. Geologists have tried to 
fathom its m^'steries, but the heat consumed the iron instruments and drove back the 
scorched and blistered explorers from the cindery and crumbling brink. It seems like the 
asj'lum of maniac elements. At one time far back its top had been a fortress, where Spar- 
tacus fought and was surrounded, and would have been destroyed had it not been for the 
grape vines which clothed the mountain side from top to base, and laying hold of them he 
climbed hand under hand to safety in the valley. But for centuries it has kept its furnace 
burning as we saw it that night on our arrival. 

Of course the next day we started to see some of the work wrought by that frenzied 
mountain. " All out for Pompeii ! " was the cry of the conductor. And now we stand by 
the corpse of that dead city. As we entered the gate and passed between the walls, I took 
off my hat, as one naturally does in the presence of some imposing obsequies. That city 
had been at one time a capital of beauty and pomp, the home of grand architecture, exqui- 
site painting, enchanting sculpture, unrestrained carousal, and rapt assemblage. A high 
wall, twenty feet thick, three-fourths of it still visible, encircled the city. On those walls at 
a distance of only one hundred yards from each other, towers rose for armed men who 
watched the city. The streets ran at right angles and from wall to wall, only one street 
excepted. In the days of the city's prosperity, its towers glittered in the sun ; eight strong- 
gates for ingress and egress ; Gate of the Sea Shore, Gate of Herculaneum, Gate of Vesu- 
vius being perhaps the most important. Yonder was the Temple of Jupiter, hoisted at an 
imposing elevation, and with its six Corinthian columns of immense girth, which stood like 
carved icebergs, shimmering in the light. There stands the Temple of the Twelve Gods. 
Yonder see the Temple of Hercules, and the Temple of Mercury, with altars of marble and 
bas-relief, wonderful enough to astound all succeeding ages of art, and the Temple of 
^sculapius, brilliant with sculpture and gorgeous with painting. Yonder are the theatres, 
partly cut into sirrroiinding hills and glorified with pictured walls and entered under arches 
of imposing masonry, and with rooms for captivated and applaudatory audiences, seated or 

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THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



381 



•standing, in vast semi-circle. Yonder are the costly and immense public baths of the city, 
with more than the modern ingenuities of Carlsbad. Notice the warmth of those ancient 
tepidariums with hovering radiance of roof, and the vapor of those caldariums with 
decorated alcoves and the cold dash of their frigidariums, with floors of mosaic, and ceilings 
of all skillfully intermingled hues, and walls upholstered with all the colors of the setting 
sun, and sofas on which to recline for slumber after the plunge. Yonder are the barracks 
of the celebrated gladiators. Yonder is the summer home of Sallust, the Roman historian 
and senator, the architecture as elaborate as his character was corrupt. There is the resi- 
dence of the poet Pansa, with a compressed lyouvre and L,uxembourg within his walls. 




ERUPTION OP vESuvrns. 



There is the home of Lucretius, with vases and antiquities enough to turn the head of a 
virtuoso. Yonder see the Forum, at the highest place of the city. It is entered by two 
triumphal arches. It is bounded on three sides by Doric columns. Yonder, in the suburbs 
of the city, is the home of Arrius Diomed, the mayor of the suburbs, terraced residence 
of billionairedom, gardens, fountained, statued, colonnaded, the cellar of that villa filled 
with bottles of rarest wine, a few drops of which were found eighteen hundred years after- 
ward. Along the streets of the city are men of might and women of beauty formed into 
bronze that many centuries had no power to bedim. Battle scenes on walls in colors which 
all time cannot efface. Great city of Pompeii ! So Seneca and Tacitus and Cicero 
pronounced it. 

Stand with me on its walls this evening of August 23, A. D. 79. See the throngs 
passing up and down in Tyrian purple and girdles of arabesque and necks enchained with 
precious stones, proud official in imposing toga meeting tlie slave carrying trays a-clink 
with goblets and a-smoke with delicacies from paddock and sea, and moralist musing over 



382 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



the degradation of the times passes the profligate doing his best to make them worse. Hark 
to the clatter and rataplan of- the hoofs on the streets paved with blocks of basalt. See the 
verdured and flowered grounds sloping into one of the most beautiful bays of all the earth — 
the Bay of Naples. Listen to the rumbling chariots, carrying convivial occupants to halls of 
mirth and masquerade and catousal. Hear tlie loud dash of fountains amid the sculptured 
water nymphs. Notice the weird, solemn, far-reaching hum and din and roar of a city at 
the close of a summer day. Let Pompeii sleep well to-night, for it is the last night of 
peaceful slumber before she falls into the deep slumber of many long centuries. The 
morning of the twenty-fourth of August, A. D. 79, has arrived, and the day rolls on, and it is 

one o'clock in the afternoon : 



" Look ! " I say to you, stand- 
iug on this wall, as the sister of 
Pliny said to him, the Roman 
essayist and naval commander, 
on the day of which I write, as 
she pointed him in the direction 
in which I point you. Thei'e is 
a peculiar cloud on the sky ; a 
spotted cloud, now white, now 
black. It is Vesuvius in awful 
and unparalleled eruption. Now 
the smoke and fire and steam of 
that black monster throat rise 
and spread. It rises, a great 
column of fiery darkness, higher 
and higher, and then spreads 
out like the branches of a tree, 
with midnights interwrapped in 
its foliage, wider and wider. 
Now the sun goes out and 
showers of pumice stone and 
water from furnaces more than 
seven times heated, and ashes 
in avalanche after avalanche, 
blinding and scalding and suf- 
focating, descend. North, South, 
East and West, burying deeper 
and deeper in mammoth sepul- 
chre, such as never before or since was opened, Stabise, Herculaneum, and Pompeii. Ashes 
ankle deep, girdle deep, chin deep, ashes overhead. Out of the houses and temples and 
theatres, and into the streets and down to the beach fled many of the frantic, but others, if not 
sufibcated of the ashes, were scalded to death by the heated deluge. And then came heavier 
destruction in rocks after rocks, crushing in homes and. temples and theatres. No wonder 
the sea receded from the beach as though in terror, until much of the shipping was wrecked, 
and no wonder that, when they lifted Pliny the elder from the sail cloth on which he was 
resting, under the agitations of what he had seen, he suddenly expired. For three days the 
entombment proceeded. Then the clouds lifted and the cursing of that Apollyon of 




STREET OF THE TOMBS, POMPEII. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



383 



Mountains subsided. For seventeen hundred years tliat city of Pompeii lay buried and 
without anything to show its place of doom. But after seventeen hundred years of oblitera- 
tion, a workman's spade, digging a well, strikes some antiquities which lead to the exhuma- 
tion of the city. Now walk with me through some of the streets and into some of the 
houses and amid the ruins of Basilica, and Temple, and Amphitheatre. 

From the moment the guide met us at the gate on entering Pompeii that day until he 
left us at the gate on our departure, the emotion I felt was indescribable for elevation and 
solemnity, and sorrow and awe. Come and see the petrified bodies of the dead found in 
the city, and now in the museums of Italy. About four hundred and fifty of those embalmed 
by that eruption have been recovered. Mother and child, noble and serf, merchant and 
beggar, are presentable and natural after seventeen hundred years of burial. That woman 




CAST OF A HUMAN BODY FOUND IN THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 

was found clutching her adornments when the storm of ashes and fire began, and for seven- 
teen hundred years she continued to clutch them. There at the soldiers' barracks are si.xty- 
four skeletons of brave men, who faithfully stood guard at their post when the tempest of 
cinders began, and after seventeen hundred years were still found standing guard. There 
is the form of gentle womanhood impressed upon the hardened ashes. Pass along, and here 
we see the deep ruts in the basaltic pavements worn there by the wheels of the chariots of 
the first century. There, over the doorways and in the porticoes, are works of art immortal- 
izing the debauchery of a city, which, notwithstanding all its splendors, was a vestibule of 
perdition. Those gutters ran with the blood of the gladiators, who were the prize-fighters 
of those ancient times, and it was sword parrying sword, until, with one skillful and stout 



384 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

plunge of the sharp edge, the mauled and gashed combatant reeled over dead, to be carried 
out amid the huzzas of enraptured spectators. We staid among those suggestive scenes after 
the hour that visitors are usually allowed there, and staid until there was not a foot fall to 
be heard within all that city, except our own. Up this silent street and down that silent 
street we wandered. Into that windowless and roofless home we went and came out again 
on to the pavements that, now forsaken, were once thronged with life. 

And can it be that all up and down these solemn solitudes, hearts, more than eighteen 
hundred years ago, ached and rejoiced, and feet shuffled with the gait of old age or danced 
with childish glee, and overtasked workmen carried their burdens, and drunkards staggered? 
On that mosaic floor did glowing youth clasp hands in marriage vow, and across that thres- 
hold did pall-bearers carry the beloved dead, and gay groups once mount those now skele- 
tons of staircases? While I walked and contemplated, the city seemed suddenly to be 
thronged with all the population that had ever inhabited it, and I heard its laughter and 
groan and blasphemy and uncleanness and infernal boast, as it was on the twenty-third of 
August, 79. And Vesuvius, from the mild light with which it flushed the sk}^ that summer 
evening as I stood in disentombed Pompeii, seemed suddenl}' again to heave and flame and 
rock with the lava and darkness and desolation and woe, with which, more than eighteen 
centuries ago, it submerged Pompeii. 

While walking through uncovered Pompeii I am absorbed with the thought that, while 
art and culture are important, they cannot save the morals or the life of a great town. 
Much of the painting and sculpture of Pompeii was so exquisite that, while some is kept 
on the walls where it was first penciled, to be admired by those who go there, whole wagon 
loads and whole rooms full of it have been transferred to the Museo Borbonico at Naples, 
to be admired by the centuries. Those Pompeiian artists mixed such durability of colors 
that though their paintings were buried in ashes and scoriae for seventeen hundred years, 
and since they were uncovered many of them have remained there exposed to the rains and 
winds and winters and summers of a hundred and thirty years, the color is as fresh and vivid 
and true as though yesterday it had passed from the easel. Which of our modern paintings 
could stand all that ? And yet mau}^ of the specimens of Pompeiian art show that the city 
was sunk to such a depth of abomination that there was nothing deeper. Sculptured and 
petrified and embalmed abomination. There was a state of public morals worse than belongs 
to any city now standing under the sun. Yet, how many think that all that is necessary is 
to cultivate the mind and advance the knowledge, and improve the arts. Have you the 
impression that eloquence will do the elevating work ? Why, Pompeii had Cicero half 
of every year for its citizen. Have you the idea that literature is all that is necessary to 
keep a city right ? Why, Sallust, with a pen that was the boast of Roman literature, had 
a mansion in that doomed city. Do you think that sculpture and art are quite sufficient for 
the production of good morals ? Then, correct your delusion by examining the statues in 
the Temple of Mercun/ at Pompeii, or the winged figures of its Parthenon, and the colon- 
nades and arches of this house of Diomed. By all means have schools and Dusseldorf and 
Dore exhibitions, and galleries where the genius of all the centuries can bank itself up in 
snowy sculpture, and all bric-a-brac, and all pure art, but nothing, save the religion of Jesus 
Christ, can make a city moral. In proportion as churches and Bibles and Christian print- 
ing presses and revivals of religion abound is a city clean and pure. What has Buddhism 
or Confucianism or Mohammedanism, done in all the hundreds of years of their progress 
for the elevation of society ? Absolutely nothing. Pekin and Madras and Cairo are just 
what they were ages ago, except as Christianity has modified their condition. What is the 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



385 



difference between our Brooklyn and their Pompeii ? No difference, except that which 
Christianity has wrought. Favor all good art, but take best care of your churches and your 
Sabbath Schools and your Bibles and your family altars. 

Yea, see in our walk to-day through uncovered Pompeii what sin will do for a cit}'. 
We ought to be slow to assign the judgments of God. Cities are sometimes afflicted just 
as good people are afflicted, and the earthquake and the cyclone and the epidemic are no 
sign in many cases that God is angr}' with a city, but the distress is sent for some good and 
kind purpose, whether we understand it or not. The law that applies to individuals may 
apply to Christian cities as well : " All things work together for good to those that love 
God." But the greatest calamity of 
history came upon Pompeii not to 
improve its future condition, for it 
was completely obliterated and will 
never be rebuilt. It was so bad that 
it needed to be buried seventeen 
hundred years before even its ruins 
were fit to be uncovered. So Sodom 
and Gomorrah were filled with such 
turpitude that they were not only 
turned under, but have for thousands 
of years been kept under. The two 
greatest cemeteries are the cemetery 
in which the sunken ships are buried 
all the way between Fire Island and 
Fastnet Light House, and the other 
cemetery is the cemetery of dead 
cities. I get down on my knees and 
read the epitapheology of a long 
line of them : Here lies Babylon^ 
once called " The hammer of the 
whole earth." Dead and buried 
under piles of bitumen and broken 
pottery and vitrified brick. And I 
hear a wolf howl and a reptile hiss 
as I read this epitaph : Isa. xiii : 21, 
" The wild beast of the desert shall 
be there and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures." The next tomb I kneel 
before in this cemetery of cities is Nineveh. Her winged lioiis are down and the 
slabs of alabaster have crumbled, and the sculpture that represented her battles is as 
completely scattered as the dust of the heroes who fought them. Perhaps I put my knee 
into the dust of her Sardanapalus as I stoop to read her epitaph : Zephaniah ii. 14, 
" Now is Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wilderness ; and flocks lie down in the 
midst of her : all the beasts of the nations, both the cormorant and tlie bittern, lodge 
in the upper lintels of it." And while I read it I hear an owl hoot, and a hyena laugh. 

The next entombed city I pass has a monument of fifty prostrate columns of 
gray and red granite and it is Tyre. The next sepulchre of a great capital is co\ered 
with scattered columns, and defaced sphinxes, and the sands of the desert, and it is 
25 




CRATKR 01 



386 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



Thebes. As I pass on I find the resting place of Mycen^, a city of which Homer sang, 
and Corinth which rejected Paul, and depended upon her fortress Acrocorinthus, which 
now lies dismantled on the hill, and I move on in this cemetery of cities, and I find 
the tombs of Sardis and Smyrna, and Persepolis, and Memphis, and Baalbek, and Carthage, 
and here are the Cities of the Plain, and Herculaneum and Stabia, and Pompeii. Some 
of them have mighty sarcophagus, and hieroglyphic entablature, but they are dead, and 
buried never to rise. 

But the cemetery of dead cities is not yet filled, and if the present cities of the world 
forget God, and with their indecencies shock the heavens, let them know that the God, who, 

on the twenty-fourth of August, 
79, dropped on a city of Italy a 
superincumbrance that staid 
there seventeen centuries, is still 
alive and hates sin now as much 
as He did then and has at his 
command all the armament of 
destruction with which He 
whelmed their iniquitous pre- 
decessors. It was only a few 
summers ago that Brooklyn and 
New York felt an earthquake 
throb that sent the people 
affrighted into the streets, and 
that suggested that there are 
forces of nature now suppressed, 
or held in check, which, easier 
than a child in a nursery knocks 
down a row of block houses, 
could prostrate a city, or engulph 
a continent deeper than Pompeii 
was engulphed. Our hope is in 
the mercy of the L,ord continued 
to our American cities. 

Warned by the doom of 
other cities that have perished 
for their Rufiianism, or their 
cruelty, or their Idolatry or their 
Dissoluteness, let all our American cities lead the right way. Our only dependence 
is on God and Christian influences. Politics will do nothing but make things worse. 
Send politics to moralize and save a city and you send small-pox to heal leprosy, or 
a carcass to relieve the air of nialodor. American politics will become a reformatory power 
on the same day that pandemonium becomes a church. But there are I am glad to say benign, 
and salutary and gracious influences organized in all our cities which will 3'et take them for 
God and righteousness. lyct us ply the Gospel machinery to its utmost speed and power. 
City evangelization is the thought. Accustomed as are religious pessimists to dwell upon 
statistics of evil and dolorous facts, we want some one with sanctified heart and good 
digestion to put in long line the statistics of natures transformed, and profligacies balked. 




INTERIOR OF THE MUSEDM, POMPEII. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



387 



and souls ransomed, and cities redeemed. Give us pictures of churches, of schools, of 
reformatory associations, of asylums of mercy. Break in upon the Miseteres of complaint 
and despondency with Te Dennis, Jubilates of moral and religious victory. Show that the day 
is coming when a great tidal wave of salvation will roll over all our cities. Show how Pom- 
peii buried will become Pompeii resurrected. Demonstrate the fact that there are millions 
of good men and women who will give themselves no rest day nor night until cities that are 
now of the type of the buried cities of Italy shall take type from the New Jerusalem 
coming down from God out of heaven. I hail the advancing mom. I make the same proc- 
lamation to-day that Gideon made to the shivering cowards of his army. " Whosoever 
is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead." Close up the 
ranks. Ivift the Gospel standard. Forward into this Armageddon that is now opening and 
let the word run all along the line. All our cities for God ! America for God 1 The world 
for God ! The most of us though born in the country, will die in town. Shall our last 
walk be through streets where sobriety and good order dominate, or grog-shops stench the 
air? Shall our last look be upon City Halls where justice reigns, or demagogues plot for 
the stuffing of ballot-boxes ? Shall we sit for the last time in some church where God is 
worshiped with the contrite heart or where cold formalism goes through unmeaning genu- 
flexions ? God save the cities ! Righteousness is life, iniquity is death. Remember pic- 
turesque, terraced, templed, sculptured, boastful, God-defying and entombed Pompeii ! 




CHAPTER XUI. 

THE COLOSSEUM. 

no ONE would think of making an extensive journey through Europe without 
visiting Rome, an.d haying seen it once it never passes out of your memory. 
Rome ! What a city it was when Paul visited it ! What a city it is now ! 
Rome ! The place where Virgil sang and Horace satirized and Terence laughed 
and Catiline conspired and Ovid dramatized and Nero fiddled and Vespasian persecuted 
and Sulla legislated and Cicero thundered and Aurelius and Decius and Caligula and Julian 
and Hadrian and Constantine and Aiigustus reigned, and Paul, the apostle, preached the 
Gospel. 

I am not much of a draftsman, but I have in my memorandum book a sketch which 
I made when I went out to the gate through which Paul entered Rome, and walked up the 
very street he walked up to see somewhat how the city must have looked to him as he came 
in on the Gospel errand. Palaces on either side of the street through which the little mis- 
sionary advanced. Piled up wickedness. Enthroned accursedness. Templed cruelties. 
Altars to sham deities. Glorified delusions. Pillared, arched, domed, turreted abomina- 
tions. Wickedness of all sorts at a high premium and Righteousness ninety-nine and three- 
fourths per cent off. And now he passes by the foundations of a building which is to be 
almost unparalleled for vastness. You can see by the walls, which have begun to rise, that 
here is to be something enough stupendous to astound the centuries. Aye, it is the Colos- 
seum started. 

Of the theatre at Ephesus where Paul fought with wild beasts, of the Temple of 
Diana, of the Parthenon, of Pharaoh's palace at Memphis, and of other great buildings, 
the ruins of which I have seen, it has been my privilege to write, but nothing I have seen 
as yet impresses me more than the Colosseum. 

Perhaps, while in Rome, the law of contrast wrought upon me. I had visited the 
Mamertine dungeon w.^ere Paul was incarcerated. I had measured the opening at the top 
of the dungeon through which Paul had been let down and it was twenty-three inches by 
twenty-six. The ceiling, at its highest point, was seven feet from the floor, but at the sides 
of the room the ceiling was five feet seven inches. The room, at the widest, was fifteen 
feet There was a seat of rock two and a half feet high. There was a shelf four 
feet high. The only furniture was a spider's web suspended from the roof, which I 
saw by the torchlight I carried. There was a subterraneous passage from the dungeon 
to the Roman forum, so that the prisoner could be taken directly from prison to trial. 
The dungeon was built out of volcanic stone from the Albano Mountains. Oh, it was 
a dismal and terrific place. You never saw coal hole so dark or so forbidding. The 
place was to me a nervous shock, for I remembered that was the best thing that the 
world would afford the most illustrious being, except One, that it ever saw, and that 
from that place Paul went out to die. From that spot I visited the Colossevim, one of the 
most astounding miracles of architecture that the world ever saw. Indeed I saw it morning, 
noon and night, for it threw a spell on me from which I could not break away. Although 

(388) 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



389 



now a vast ruin, the Colosseum is so well preserved that we can stand in the centre and 
recall all that it once was. It is in shape ellipsoidal, oval, oblong. It is, at its greatest 
length, six hundred and twelve feet. After it had furnished seats for eighty-seven thousand 
people, it had room for fifteen thousand more to stand, so that one hundred thousand people 
could sit and stand transfixed by its scenes of courage and martyrdom and brutality and 
horror. Instead of our modern tickets of admission, they entered by ivory check, and a 
check dug up near Rome within a few years, was marked : " Section 6, Lowest Tier, Seat 
No. 18." You understand that the building was not constructed for an audience to be 
addressed by a human voice, although I tested it with some friends and could be heard 
across it, but it was made only for 
seeing and was circular, and at 
any point allowed full view of the 
spectacle. The arena in the centre 
in olden times was strewn with 
pounded stone or sand, so as not 
to be too slippery with human 
blood, for if it were too slippery 
it would spoil the fun. The sand 
flashed here and there with 
sparkles of silver and gold, and 
Nero added cinnabar, and Caligula 
added chrysocoUa. The sides of 
the arena were composed of 
smooth marble, eleven feet high, 
so that the wild beasts of the arena 
could not climb up into the audi- 
ence. On the top of these sides 
of smooth marble was a metal 
railing, having wooden rollers 
which easily revolved, so that if 
a panther should leap high enough 
to scale the wall and with his paw 
touch any one of those rollers, it 
would revolve and drop him back 
again into the arena. Back of this 
marble wall surrounding the arena 
was a level platform of stone, 

adorned with statues of gods and goddesses and the artistic effigies of monarchs and 
conquerors. Here were movable seats for the emperor and the imperial swine and 
swinesses with which he surrounded himself Before the place where the emperor 
sat, the gladiators would walk immediately after entering the arena, crying : " Hail, 
Ciesar! Those about to die salute thee." The different ranks of spectators were divided 
by partitions studded with mosaics of emerald and beryl and ruby and diamond. Great 
masts of wood arose from all sides of the building, from which festoons of flowers 
were suspended, crossing the building, or in time of rain, awnings of silk were sus- 
pended, the Colosseum having no roof The outside wall was encrusted with marble 
and had four ranges, and the three lower ranges had eighty columns each and arches after 




RI'INS OF THK COLOSSEUM, ROJIp;. 



39° 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



arches, and on each arch an exquisite statue of a god or a hero. Into one hundred and 
eighty feet of altitude soared the Colosseum. It glittered and flashed and shone with whole 
sunrises and sunsets of dazzlement. After the audience had assembled, aromatic liquids 
oozed from tubes distilled from pipes and rained gently on the multitudes, and filled the 
air with odors of hyacinth and heliotrope and frankincense and balsam and myrrh and 
saffron, so that Lucan, the poet, says of it : 

At once ten thousand saflfron currents flow, 
And rain their odors on the crowd below. 

But where was the sport to come from ? Well, I went into the cellars opening off from 
the arena, and I saw the places where they kept the hyenas and lions and panthers and 

wild boars and beastly 
violences of all sorts, with- 
out food or water until 
made fierce enough for 
the arena, and I saw the 
underground rooms where 
the gladiators were accus- 
tomed to wait until the 
clapping of the people 
outside demanded that 
they come forth armed to 
murder or to be murdered. 
All the arrangements were 
complete, as enough of the 
cellars and galleries still 
remain to indicate. What 
fun they must have had 
turning lions without food 
or drink for a week, upon 
an unarmed disciple of 
Jesus Christ ! At the dedi- 
cation of this Colosseum, 
nine thousand wild beasts 
and ten thousand immortal 
men were slain ; so that 
the blood of men and beast was not a brook but a river, not a pool but a lake. Having 
been in that way dedicated, be not surprised when I tell you that Emperor Probus 
on one occasion threw into that arena of the Colosseum a thousand stags, a thousand 
hoars and a thousand ostriches. What fun it must have been ! the sound of trumpets, 
the roar of wild beasts and the groans of dying men ! while in the gallery the wives 
and children of those down under the lion's paw wrung their hands and shrieked out 
in widowhood and orphanage, while one hundred thousand people clapped their hands, and 
there was a " Ha ! Ha ! " wide as Rome and deep as perdition. The corpses of that arena 
were put on a cart or dragged by a hook out through what was called the Gate of Death. 
What an excitement it must have been when two combatants entered the arena, the one 
with sword and shield and the other with net and spear. The swordsman strikes at the 




TEMPLE OF MINERVA, ROME. 

Minerva was a Roman goddess regarded as the impersonation of divine thought. She 
was accordingly the patroness of arts, trades, and war, and was invoked by painters,' poets, 
craftsmen and heroes. Her oldest temple at Rome was on the Capitoline Hill, pictured 
above. She was a diety of the Greeks under the name of Pallas Athene. Her most cele- 
brated and colossal statue was that made by Phidias, of gold and ivory, which was once the 
glory of the Parthenon. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



391 



man with the net and spear ; he dodges the sword, and then flings the net over the head of 
the swordsman and jerks him to the floor of the arena, and the man who flung the net puts 
his foot on the neck of the fallen swordsman, and, spear in hand, looks up to the galleries, 
as much as to say : " Shall I let him up, or shall I plunge this spear into his body until 
he is dead?" The audience had two signs, either of which they might give. If they 
waved their flags, it meant spare the fallen contestant. If they turned their thumbs down, 
it meant slay hiin. Occasionally the audience would wave their flags and the fallen would 
be let up, but that was too tame sport for most occasions, and generally the thumbs from 
the galleries were turned down, 
and with that sign would be 
heard the accompanying shout of 
" Kill ! Kill ! Kill ! Kill ! " 

Yet it was far from being a 
monotone of sport, for there was 
a change of program in that 
wondrous Colosseum. Under a 
strange and powerful machinery, 
beyond anything of modern in- 
vention, the floor of the arena 
would begin to rock and roll and 
then give away, and there would 
appear a lake of bright water, 
and on its banks trees would 
spring up rustling with foliage, 
and tigers appeared among the 
jungles, and armed men would 
come forth, and there would be 
a tiger hunt. Then, on the lake 
in the Colosseum, armed ships 
would float, and there would be a 
sea fight. What fun! What 
lots of fun ! When pestilence 
came, in order to appease the 
gods, in this Colosseum a sacri- 
fice would be made, and the 
people would throng that great 
amphitheatre, shouting : " The 
Christians to the wild beasts," and there would be a crackling of human bones in the jaws 
of leonine ferocity. 

But all this was to be stopped. By the outraged sense of public decency ! No. There 
is only one thing that has ever stopped cruelty and sin, and that is Christianity, and it was 
Christianity, whether you like its form or not, that stopped this massacre of centuries. One 
day while, in the Colosseum, a Roman victory was being celebrated, and one hundred thou- 
sand enraptured spectators were looking down upon two gladiators in the arena, stabbing 
and slicing each other to death, an Asiatic monk by the name of Telemachus was so over- 
come by the cruelty that he leaped from the gallery into the arena and ran in between the 
two swordsmen, and pushed first one back and then the other back and broke up the 




ALTAR TO THE UNKNOWN GOD, ROME. 



392 



THE EARTH GIRDIvED. 



contest. Of course, the audience was affronted at having their sport stopped, and they hurled 
stones at the head of Telemachus until he fell dead in the arena. But when the day was 
passed and the passions of the people had cooled off, they deplored the martyrdom of the 
brave and Christian Telemachus, and as a result of the overdone cruelty the human sacrifices 
of the Colosseum were forever abolished. 

What a good thing, say you, that such cruelties have ceased. But, my reader, the same 
spirit of ruinous amusements and of moral sacrifice is abroad in the world to-day although 
it takes other shapes. One summer in our country there occurred a scene of pugilism on 

which all Christendom looked 
down, for I saw the papers on the 
other side of the Atlantic ocean 
giving whole columns of it. Will 
some one tell me in what respect 
the brutality of that day was su- 
perior to the brutality of the 
Roman Colosseum ? In some re- 
spects it was worse, by so much as 
the Nineteenth Century pretends 
to be more merciful and more 
decent than the Fifth Century. 
That pugilism is winning admir- 
ation in America is positively 
proved by the fact that years ago 
such collision was reported in a 
half dozen lines, of newspaper, if 
reported at all, and now it takes 
the whole side of a newspaper to 
tell what transpired between the 
first blood drawn by one loafer and 
the throwing up of the sponge by 
the other loafer, and it is not the 
newspaper's fault, for the news- 
papers give only what the people 
want, and when newspapers put 
carrion on your table, it is because 
you prefer carrion. The same 
spirit of brutality is seen to-day in 
many an ecclesiastical court when 
a minister is put on trial. L,ook at the countenances of the prosecuting ministers and, not 
in all cases, but in many cases, you will find nothing but diabolism inspires them. They 
let out on one poor minister who cannot defend himself, the lion of ecclesiasticism and the 
tiger of bigotry and the wild boar of jealousy and if they can get the offending minister 
fiat on his back, some one puts his feet on the neck of the overthrown Gospelizer and looks 
up, spear in hand, to see whether the galleries and ecclesiastics would have him let up or 
slain. And, lo ! many of the thumbs are down. 

In the worldly realms look at the brutalities of the presidential election a few years 
ago. Read the biographies of Daniel Webster and Alexander H. Stephens and Horace 




INTERIOR OF THE CHAPEI^ ON THE SPOT WHERE ST. PETER 
WAS CRUCIFIED. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



393 



Greeley and Charles Sumner and Lucius Quintius Lamar and James G. Blaine, and if the 
story of defamation and calumny and scandalization and diatribe and scurrility and lampoon 
and billingsgate and damnable perfidy be accurately recorded, tell me in what respects our 
political arena and the howling and blaspheming galleries that again and again look down 
upon it are better than the Roman Colosseum. When I read that the Supreme Court of 
the United States had appropriately adjourned to pay honors to two of the distinguished 
men mentioned, and American journalism. North, South, East and West, went into lamen- 
tations over their departure and said all complimentary things in regard to them, I asked, 
When did the nation lie about these men ? Was it when, during their life, it gave them 
malediction, or now, since their death, when bestowing upon them beatification. The same 
spirit of cruelty that you deplore in the Roman Colosseum is seen in the sharp appetite the 
world seems to have for the downfall of good men, and in the divorce of those whose 
marital life was thought accordant, and in the absconding of a bank cashier. Oh, the 
world wants more of the spirit 
of " Let-him-up," and less of the 
spirit of "Thumbs-down." 
There are hundreds of men in 
the prisons of America who 
ought to be discharged, because 
they were the victims of cir- 
cumstances or have suffered 
enough. There are in all pro- 
fessions and occupations, men 
who are domineered over by 
others and whose whole life is 
a struggle with monstrous oppo- 
sition, and circumstances have 
their heel upon the throbbing 
and broken hearts. For God's 
sake, let them up ! Away with 
the spirit of " Thumbs-down ! " 
What the world wants is a thou- 
sand men like Telemachus to leap out of the gallery into the arena, whether he be a Roman 
Catholic monk or a Methodist steward, or a Presbyterian elder, and go in between the con- 
testants. " Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." 

One half the world is down and the other half is up, and the half that is up has its 
heel on the half that is down. If you, as a boss workman, or as a contractor, or as a bishop, 
or as a state or national official, or as a potent factor in social life, or in any waj', are oppress- 
ing anyone, know that the same devil that possessed the Roman Colosseum oppresses you. 
The Diocletians are not all dead. The cellars leading into the arena of life's struggle are 
not all emptied of their tigers. The vivisection by young doctors of dogs and cats and 
birds most of the time adds nothing to human discovery, but is only a continuation of 
Vespasian's Colosseum. The cruelties of the world generally begin in nurseries and in 
home circles and in day schools. The child that transfixes a fly with a pin, or the low 
feeling that sets two dogs into combat, or that bullies a weak or crippled playmate, or the 
indifference that starves a canary bird, needs only to be developed in order to make a first- 
class Nero or a full-armed Apollyon. It would be a good sentence to be written on the top 




GENERAL VIEW OF ROME. 



394 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



line of a cliild's copy book, and a fit inscription to be embroidered in the arm-chair of the 
sitting-room, and an appropriate motto forjudge and jury and district-attorney and sheriff 
to look at in the court house : " Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." 

And so the ruins of that Colosseum speak to me. Indeed the most impressive things 
on earth are ruins. The four greatest structures ever built are in ruins. The Parthenon in 
ruins. The Temple of Diana in ruins. The Temple of Jerusalem in ruins. The Colos- 
seum in ruins. Indeed the earth itself will yet be a pile of ruins, the mountains in ruins, 
the seas in ruins, the cities in ruins, the hemispheres in ruins. Yea, further than that, all 
up and down the heavens are worlds burned up, worlds wrecked, worlds extinct, worlds 




EXCAVATIONS OP THE FORUM, ROME. 

The Forum at Rome was originally a market-place, paved with stone and surrounded by streets and houses until 472 B. C, when 
it became the place of assembly of the Comitia Tributia, where the people were convened by a magistrate for the purpose of putting 
all public questions to vote. Recent excavations of the Forum and its present appearance are illustrated above. 

abandoned. Worlds on worlds in ruins ! But I am glad to say it is the same old Heaven, 
and in all that world there is not one ruin and never will be a ruin. Not one of the pearly 
gates will ever become unhinged. Not one of the amethystine towers will ever fall. Not 
one of the mansions will ever decay. Not one of the chariots will ever be imwheeled. 
Not one of the thrones will ever rock down. 

The last evening before leaving Rome I went alone to the Colosseum. There was not 
a living soul in all the immense area. Even those accustomed to sell curios at the four 
entrances of the building had gone away. The place was so overwhelmingly silent, I could 
hear my own heart beat with the emotions aroused by the place and hour. I paced the 
arena. I walked down into the dens where the hyenas were once kept. I ascended to the 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



395 



place where the Emperor used to sit. I climbed up on the galleries from which the mighty 
throngs of people had gazed in enchantment. To break the silence, I shouted, and that 
seemed to awaken the echoes, echo upon echo. And those awakened echoes seemed to 
address me, saying : " Men die but their work lives on. Gaudentius, the architect who 
planned this structure, the sixty thousand enslaved Jews brought by Titus from Jerusalem 
and who toiled on these walls, the gladiators who fought in this arena, the emperors and 
empresses who had place on yonder platform, the millions who, during centuries, sat and 
rose in these galleries, have passed away, but enough of the Colosseum stands to tell the 
story of cruelty and pomp and power. Five hundred years of bloodshed." Then, as I 
stood there, there came to me 



another burst of echoes, which 
seemed throbbing with the 
prayers and songs and groans of 
Christians who had expired in 
that arena, and they seemed to 
say : " How much it cost to serve 
God in ages past, and how thank- 
ful modern centuries ought to 
be that the persecution which 
reddened the sands of this amphi- 
theatre have been abolished." 
And then I questioned the 
echoes, saying : " Where is Em- 
peror Titus who sat here ? " 
The answer came : " Gone to 
judgment." "Where is Em- 
peror Trajan who sat here?" 
" Gone to judgment." " Where 
is Emperor Maximinus who sat 
here?" "Gone to judgment." 
"Where are all the multitudes 
who clapped and shouted and 
waved flags to let the van- 
quished up, or to have them 
slain, put thumbs down ? " The 
echoes answered : " Gone to judg- 
ment." I inquired :" All ? " And 
they answered: " All." And I looked up to the sky above the ruins, and it was full of 
clouds scurrying swiftl}' past, and those clouds seemed as though they had faces, and some 
of the faces smiled and some of them frowned, and they seemed to have wings, and some 
of the wings were moon-gilt and the others thunder-charged, and the voices of those clouds 
overpowered the echoes beneath : " Behold, He cometh with clouds and every eye shall see 
Him." And as I stood looking up along the walls of the Colosseum, they rose higher and 
higher, higher and higher, until the amphitheatre seemed to be filled with all the nations of 
the past and all the nations of the present and all the nations of the future, those who went 
down under the paws of wild beasts, and those who sat waving flags to let up the conquered, 
and those who held thumbs down to command their assassination, and small and great, and 




THK VATICAN, ROME. 



396 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



emperor and slave, and pastor and people, and righteous and wicked, the amphitheatre 
seeming to rise to infinite heights on all sides of me, and in the centre of that amphitheatre, 
instead of the arena of combatants, a great throne stood, rising higher and higher, higher 
and higher, and on it sat the Christ for whom the martyrs died and against whom the 
Diocletians plotted their persecutions, and waving one hand toward the piled up splendors 
to the right of Him, He cried: "Come, ye blessed," and waving the other hand toward 
the piled up glooms on the left of Him, He cried: "Depart, ye cursed." And so the 
Colosseum of Rome that evening of my journey seemed enlarged into the amphitheatre of 
the lyast Judgment, and I passed from under the arch of that mighty structure, mighty even 
in its ruins, praying to Almighty God, through Jesus Christ, for mercy in that day for 
which all other days were made, and that as I expected mercy from God, I might exercise 
mercy toward others, and have more and more of the spirit of "Ivet-him-up "and less and 
less of the spirit of "Thumbs-down." 




CHAPTER XLIII. 



MV RECEPTION IN THE RUSSIAN PALACE. 



OHERE is no country on earth so misunderstood as Russia, and no monarch 
more misrepresented than its Emperor. Will it not be in the cause of justice 
if I try to set right the minds of those to whom, on both sides of the ocean, 
these words shall come? If the slander of one person is wicked, then the 
slander of one hundred and twelve million people is one hundred and twelve million times 
more wicked. In the name of righteousness and in behalf of civilization, and for the 
encouragement of all those good people who have been disheartened by the scandalization of 
Russia, I now write. But Russia is so vast a subject that to treat it in one chapter is like 
attempting to run Niagara Falls over one mill wheel. Do not think that the very marked 




HOUSB OF THE ROMANOri'S, MOSCOW. 

courtesies extended me by the Emperor and Empress and Crown Prince of Russia have 
complimented me into the advocacy of that empire, for I shall present you authenticated 
facts that will reverse your opinions, if they have been antagonistic, as mine were reversed. 
I went to Russia with as many baleful prejudices as would make an avalanche from the 
mountain of fabrication which has for years been heaped up against that empire. You ask 
how is it possible that such appalling misrepresentations of Russia could stand ? I account 
for it by the fact that the Russian language is to most an impassable wall. Malign the 

(397) 



398 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



United States or malign Great Britain or Germany or France, and by the next cablegram 
the falsehood is exposed, for we all understand English, and many of onr people are familiar 
with German and French. But the Russian language, beautiful and easy to those born to 
speak it, is to most vocal organs an unpronounceable tongue, and if at St. Petersburg or 
Moscow any anti-Russian calumny were denied, the most of the world outside of Russia 

would never see or hear the 
denial. 

What are the motives 
for misrepresentation ? Com- 
mercial interests and interna- 
tional jealousy. Russia is as 
large as all the rest of Europe 
put together. Remember that 
a nation is only a man or a 
woman on a big scale. Go 
into any neighborhood of 
America and ask the physi- 
cian who has a small practice 
what he thinks of the physi- 
cian who has a large practice. 
Ask a lawyer who has no 
briefs what he thinks of the 
lawyer who has three rooms 
filled with clerks trying in 
vain to transact the super- 
abundant business that comes 
to him. Ask the minister who 
has a very limited audience 
what he thinks of the min- 
ister who has overflowing 
audiences. Why does not 
Europe like Russia ? Because 
she has enough acreage to 
swallow all Europe and feel 
she had only half a meal. 
Russia is as long as North 
and South America put to- 
gether. There are two Euro- 
pean journals that I know 
of which keep two men on 
salaries to catch up every- 
thing unfortunate in Russia and exaggerate it, or if there be nothing unfortunate then to 
manufacture falsehoods concerning that empire. 

I stood in London one summer with tickets in my pocket for St. Petersburg. It 
was two o'clock in the afternoon and I was to take the train at three. An American physi- 
cian came in and said, " You certainly do not think of going to St. Petersburg?" I said, 
" Why not ?" He replied, " Have you not seen the morning newspaper with an account of 




LOUIS KI.OPSCH, PROPRIETOR OF "THE CHRIaTI.^N HERALD,' 
TRAVELING COMPANION IN RUSSI.A. 



THE WORLD AS vSEEN TO-DAY. 



399 



the cholera in St. Petersburg ?" Then turning to a newspaper I found the report that there 
were two thousand five hundred cases of cholera in St. Petersburg, the city divided in hos- 
pital districts, the population flying in terror. And it was almost as bad in IMoscow. I halted 
for four days, but then receiving an encouraging telegram I started for St. Petersburg. 
There was not a single case of cholera in St. Petersburg or Moscow, and was not a case 
until a month after I left there. But the falsehood concerning cholera had done its com- 
mercial errand. All the summer 
tourists who intended visiting 
Russia turned back, and went 
elsewhere. The hotel in St. 
Petersburg where I stopped had 
received orders engaging everj' 
room and every mattress by in- 
tended visitors. But the report 
concerning cholera led to the can- 
cellation of those engagements, 
and in the great hotel capable 
of entertaining hundreds of guests 
I would think there were about 
twenty. And so all over north- 
ern Russia the damage was done. 
After returning to America I saw 
in two evening papers something 
like the following in big letters : 
Attempted Assassination of the 
Imperial Family of Russia. Yes- 
terday the imperial train was 
nearing Warsaw. Dynamite was 
put between the tracks, but as the 
imperial train was belated, an 
•ordinary train took the track, and 
it was blown up, five people killed 
and fourteen wounded. The Em- 
peror and his family coming up 
after a while saw their narrow 
■escape, and were in great excite- 
ment. When I read this in aa 
■evening paper I laughed aloud 
and said to those in the room, 
" Not a word of truth in it." The 
next morning only one paper re- 
ferred to the evil report and that 
paper said that the report the evening before from Russia was not true. The only mistake 
about it was that the imperial family were at home at Peterhof. There was no imperial train 
out. Nobody was killed, no one was hurt, and no dynamite had been used, and nothing at all 
had happened. A few days ago it came by cablegram and was published throughout America 
that a Russian woman had eaten a whole child at one meal. The woman was not 




IMPERIAL FAMILY AS I SAW THEM. 



400 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



especially hungry, nor straitened in circumstances. But to show the barbarism of the 
Russians this story was cabled concerning the achievement of this woman in eating a child 
at one meal, and I suppose there were hundreds of thousands of people fools enough to 
believe it. A recent story filling many columns of newspapers concerning cases of cruelties 
in Russia said to have recently occurred, was printed originally forty years ago, and was then 
dramatized, but the fellow who revived it now no doubt was well paid for its reproduction. 
" But," says some one, " do you mean to charge the authors and the lecturers who have 

written and spoken against Russia 
with falsehood?" By no means. 
You can find in any city or nation 
evils innumerable if you wish to 
discourse about them. I said at St. 
Petersburg to the most eminent lady 
of Russia outside of the imperial 
family: "Are those stories of cruelty 
and outrage that I have heard and 
read about, true?" She replied, 
" No doubt some of them are true, 
but do you not in America ever have 
officers of the law cruel and out- 
rageous in their treatment of offend- 
ers ? Do you not have instances 
where the police have clubbed 
innocent persons? Have you no 
instances where people in brief au- 
thority act arrogantly ?" I replied, 
" Yes, we do." Then she said, 
" Why does the world hold our gov- 
ernment responsible for exceptional 
outrages ? As soon as an official is 
found to be cruel, he immediately 
loses his place." Then I bethought 
myself : Do the people in America 
hold the government at Washington 
responsible for the Homestead riots 
at Pittsburg, or for railroad insurrec- 
tions, or for the torch of the villain 
that consumes a block of houses, or 
for the ruffians who arrest a rail 
train, making the passengers hold 
up their arms until the pockets are picked ? Why, then, hold the Emperor of Russia, who 
is as impressive and genial a man as I have ever looked at or talked with, responsible for the 
wrongs enacted in a nation with a population twice as large in numbers as the millions of 
America ! Suppose one monarch in Europe ruled over England, Scotland, Ireland, France, 
Germany, Spain, Italy, Aiistria, Norway and Sweden. Would it be fair to hold the monarch 
responsible for all that occurred in that mighty dominion ? Now, you must remember 
that Alexander the Third reigns over wider dominion than all those empires put together. 




DOWAGER EMPRESS OF RUSSIA AND HER DAUGHTER. 




(40I) 



402 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



As a nation is only a man or a woman on a big scale, let me ask, would you individu- 
ally prefer to be judged by your faults or your virtues ? All people, except ourselves, have 
faults. The pessimist attempting to write your biography would take you in your weaker 
moods, and the picture of you on the first page of your biography would be as you looked 
after some meanness had been practiced on you and you were tearing mad. Now, as I am 
an optimist, I give you fair warning that if I ever write your biography, I will take you as 

you looked the day your dividends 
came in twenty per cent larger 
than you ever anticipated, or the 
morning on your way to business 
after your first child was born, or the 
morning after your conversion when 
heaven had rolled in on your soul. 
The most accursed homunculi of all 
the earth are the pessimists, who, 
whether they judge individual or 
national character, and whether they 
wield tongue or pen, are filled with 
anathematization, and who have 
more to say about the freckles on 
the cheeks of beauty than of the 
sunrises and sunsets that flush it. 
I would like to read the funeral 
service over the last pessimist, but 
I would omit that part which makes 
reference to a Resurrection as be- 
ing entirely irrelevant. 

It is most important that this 
country have right ideas concerning 
Russia, for, among all the nations 
this side of heaven, Russia is 
America's best friend. There has 
not been an hour in the last 
seventy-five years that the ship- 
wreck of free institutions in Amer- 
ica would not have called forth from 
all the despotisms of Europe and 
Asia a shout of gladness wide as 
earth and deep as perdition. But 
whoever else failed us, Russia never 
did, and whoever else was doubtful, 
Russia never was. Russia, then an old government, smiled on the cradle of our govern- 
ment while yet in its earliest infanc)-. Empress Catherine of Russia in 1776 or 
thereabouts offered kindly interference that oiir thirteen colonies might not go down 
under the cruelties of war. Again, in 1813, Russia stretched forth toward us fe merciful 
hand. When our dreadful Civil War was raging and the two thunder clouds of Northern 
and Soirthern valor clashed, Russia practically said to the nations of Europe : " Keep your 




PREFECT OF ST. PETERSBURG. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



403 



hands off and let the brave men of the North and Soutli settle their own troubles." I 
rehearsed some of those scenes to the Emperor last July, saying : " You were probably too 
young to remember the position your father took at that time," but with radiant smile he 
responded: "Oh, yes, I remember, I remember," and there was an accentuation of the 
words which demonstrated to me that these occurrences had often been talked of in the 
imperial household. I stood on the New York Battery, during the war, as I suppose many 
of my readers did, looking off through a magnifying glass upon a fleet of Russian ships. 




UxCH OF TRIUMPH, MOSCOW. 



" What are they doing there ? " I asked, and .so everyone asked: "What business has the 
Russian warships in our New York Harbor? " Word came that another fleet of Russian 
sliips was in San Francisco Harbor. " What does this mean?" our rulers asked, but did 
not get immediate answer. In these two American harbors, the Russian fleets seemed sound 
asleep. Their great mouths of iron spoke not a word, and the Russian flag, whether floating 
in the air or drooping by the flagstaff, made no answer to our inquisitiveness. William H. 
Seward, Secretary of State, asked the Russian Minister at Washington, the meaning of those 
Russian ships in American waters, and got no satisfactory response. Admiral Farragut said 



404 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



to a Russian officer after dining in the home of the eminent politician Thurlow Weed that 
maker and unmaker of Presidents: " What are you doing here with those Russian vessels of 
war? " Not until the war was over was it found out that in case of foreign intervention all 
the guns and the last gun of these two fleets in New York and San Francisco harbors were 
to open in full diapason upon any foreign ship that should dare to interfere with the right 
of Americans, North and South, to settle their own controversy. But for the fleets and 
their presence in American waters, there can be no doubt that two of the mightiest nations 
of Europe would have mingled in our fight. But for those two fleets, the American govern- 
ment would have been to-day only a name in history. I declare before God and the nation 
that I believe Russia saved the United States of America. Last July I stood before a great 




DR. TAI<MAGE LE.WING THE CITY HALL, ST. PETERSBURG. 

throng of Russians in the embarrassing position of speaking to an audience three-fourths 
of which could not understand my language any more than I could understand theirs. But 
there were two names that they thoroughly understood as well as 3'ou understand them, and 
the utterance of these two names brought forth an acclamation that made the City Hall of 
St. Petersburg quake from fotmdation stone to tower, and those two names were " George 
Washington " and " Abraham Lincoln." Now, is it not important that we should feel right 
toward that mighty and God-given friend of more than one hundred 3'ears? Yea, because 
it is a nation of more possibilities than any other, except our own, should we cultivate its 
friendship. There is a vast realm of friendship as yet unoccupied. If the population of 
the rest of Europe were poured into Russia, it would be only partially occupied. After a 




RUSSIAN MILITARY TYPES. 



(405) 



4o6 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



while, America will be so well populated that the tides of emigration will go the other way, 
and by railroads from Russia at Behring Straits — where Asia comes within thirty-six miles 
of joining America — millions of people will pour down through Russia and Siberia, and on 
down through all the regions waiting for the civilization of the next century to come and 
culture great harvests and build mighty cities. What the United States now are on the 
Western Hemisphere, Russia will be on the Eastern Hemisphere. Not only because of 
what Rxissia has been to our Republic but because of what she will be, let us cease the 
defamation of all that pertains to that great empire. If Russia can afford to be the friend 
of America, America can afford to be the friend of Russia. And now I proceed to what I 
told the Emperor and the Empress and all the imperial family at the Palace of Peterhof I 
would do if I ever got back to America, and that is to answer some of the calumnies which 
haye been announced and reiterated and stereotyped against Russia. 

Calumny the first : The Emperor and all the imperial family are in perpetual dread 
of assassination. They are practically prisoners in the Winter Palace, and trenches with 

dynamite have 
been found dug 
around the Win- 
ter Palace. They 
dare not venture 
forth, except pre- 
ceded and fol- 
lowed and sur- 
rounded by a 
most elaborate 
military guard. 
My answer to 
this is that I 
never saw a face 
more free from 
worriment than 
the Emperor's 
face. The Winter 
Palace, around 
which the tren- 
ches are said 
to h a v e been 
charged with dynamite and in which the imperial family are said to be prisoners, has never 
been the residence of the imperial family one moment since the present Emperor has been 
on the throne. That Winter Palace has been changed into a museum and a picture gallery 
and a place of great levees. He spends his summer in the Palace at Peterhof, ten miles 
from St. Petersburg ; his autumns at the palace at Gatschina, and his winters in the Palace at 
St. Petersburg, but in quite a different part of the city to that occupied by the Winter 
Palace. He rides through the streets unattended, except by the Empress at his side and the 
driver on the box. Not one of my readers is more free from fear of harm than he is. His 
subjects not only admire him but almost worship him. There are cranks in Russia, but 
have we not had our Charles Guiteau and John Wilkes Booth ? " But," says some one, 
" did not the Russians kill the father of Alexander HI. ? " Yes, but in the time that Russia 




FORTRESS OF STS. PETER AND PAUL, ST. PETERSBURG. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



407 



has had one assassination of Emperor, America has had two Presidents assassinated. " But is 
not the Emperor an autocrat ? " By which you mean, has he not power without restriction ? 
Yes, but it all depends upon what use a man makes of his power. 

Are you an autocrat in your factory, or an autocrat in your store, or an autocrat in your 
style of business ? It all depends on what use you make of your power, whether to bless or 
to oppress, and from the time of Peter the Great — that Russian who was the wonder of all 
time, the Emperor who became incognito a ship carpenter that he might help ship carpen- 
ters, and a mechanic that he might help mechanics, and put on poor men's garb that he 
might sympathize with poor men, and who in his last words said : " My Lord, I am dying. 
Oh, help my unbelief." I say from that time the throne of Russia has, for the most part, 
been occupied by rulers as beneficent and kind and 
sympathetic as they were powerful. To go no 
further back than Nicholas, the great-grandfather 
of the present Emperor : Nicholas had for the dom- 
inant idea of his administration the emancipation 
of the serfs. When it was found that he premedi- 
tated the freedom of the serfs, he received the 
following letter of threat from a deputation of 
noblemen : " Your Imperial Majesty : We learn 
that the Council and Senate of the Empire have 




PUBLIC MUSEUM, MO.qcOW. 



before them for deliberation, with your sanction, the plan to abolish serfdom throughout 
the Russian Empire. We are perfectly willing to abide by your Majesty's decision 
in this matter, and to loyally support your will, but there are in Russia a large number 
of small owners of .serfs, who are dependent for actual subsistence on the labor of those 
serfs and who consequently will be left wholly penniless and without any resource by 
the operation of emancipation. They will then undoubtedly resort to desperate measures, 
and in the extremity of their despair, will put the life of your Majesty in jeopardy." 
The Emperor replied in words that will last as long as history: "Gentlemen, if I 
should die because of my devotion to such a cause, I am willing to meet my fate." 
When, under an attack of pneumonia from exposure in .severe weather in the service of his 



4o8 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



people, that Emperor put down his head on the pillow of dust, although he had not 
achieved the favorite idea of his reign, Russia lost as good a monarch as ever was crowned. 
Then came Alexander the Second, the father of the present Emperor. Amid the mightiest 
opposition, and innumerable protests, he with one stroke of his pen, emancipated twenty 
million serfs, practically saying, " Go free. Be your own masters, and this is for you and 
your children forever." What a marvelous character of kindness was Alexander the Second, 

the father of the present 
Emperor, so that the pres- 
ent Emperor, Alexander the 
Third, inherits his benig- 
nit)-. Alexander the Second 
hearing that a nobleman 
had formed a conspiracy 
against his life, had him 
arrested. Then the eyes of 
the criminal were bandaged, 
and he was put in a carriage, 
and for some time traveled 
on, only stopping for food. 
After a while the bandage 
was removed, and supposing 
that he must by that time 
be almost in Siberia, found 
that he was at the door of 
his own home. But this 
punishment was sufficient. 
The same Emperor having 
heard that a poet had written 
a poem defamatory of his 
Empress, ordered the poet ' 
into his presence. Expect- 
ing great severity, the poet 
entered the palace, and found 
the Emperor and Empress 
and others together. "Good 
morning," said the Emperor 
to the offender. " I hear 
you have written a most 
beautiful poem, and I have 
sent for you that j'ou may 
read it to lis and we may 
have the pleasure of hearing 
it." The man cried out : 
" Send me to Siberia or do anything with me, but do not make me read this poem 
in your presence." He was compelled to read the defamatory poem, and then the Empress, 
against Avhom it was aimed, said : "I do not think he will write any more verses 
.about us again. Eet him go." And so he was freed. And now comes in Alexander the 




THE WAY I WAS RECEIVED AT ST. PETERSBURG. 




(4f9) 




(4IO) 



NICHOLAS 11., PRESENT EMPEROR OF RUSSIA, BORN MAY iS, 1868. 




MY RECEPTION AND INTERVIEW WITH THE CZAR OF RUSSIA, ALEXANDER III. (411 




SCENES OF DR. TALMAGE'S RECEPTION IN ST. PETERSBURG. 




(4i3> 







(414) 




f4'5) 




THE GREAT BELL, MOSCOW. 
The great bell of Moscow, called the Czar Kolokol, is the largest that was ever cast, weighing 400,000 pounds and standing 
twenty-one feet high. The bell was cast in 1730 and hung in the tower Ivan Veliki, within the Kremlin walls, with forty-three 
other bells of various sizes. Seven years later the tower burned and the king of bells fell with such force that it sunk deep into 
the earth and a large piece was broken from its side. For one hundred years it lay neglected, half embedded in the ground, 
when Nicholas I. caused it to be raised and mounted upon a pedestal, where it still remains. The value of the bell at the price 
for old metal is $200,000. 

(416) 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



417 



Third, doing the best things possible for the nation which he loved and which as ardently 
loved him. Bfit what an undertaking to rule one hundred and twelve million people, 
made up of one hundred tribes and races and speaking forty different languages. But, not- 
withstanding all this, things there move on marvelously well, and I do not believe that 
out of five hundred thousand Russians you would find more than one person that dislikes 
the Emperor, and so that calumny of dread of assassination drops so flat it can fall no 
flatter. 

Calumny the second : If you go to Russia, you are under severest espionage, stopped 
here and questioned there, and in danger of arrest. But my opinion is that if a man is 




CONVOY OF CONDEMNED, RUSSIA. 

disturbed in Russia it is because he ought to be disturbed. Russia is the only country in 
Europe in which my baggage was not examined. I carried in my hand, tied together with 
a cord so that their titles could be seen, a pile of eight or ten books, all of them from lid 
to lid cursing Russia, but I had no trouble in taking with me the books. There is ten 
times more difficulty in getting your baggage through the American Custom House than 
through the Russian. I speak not for myself, for friends intercede for me on American 
27 



4i8 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



wharves, and I am not detained. Depend upon it if hereafter a man believes he is uncom- 
fortably watched by the police of St. Petersburg or Moscow, it is because there is something- 
suspicious about him, and you yourself had better, when he is around, look after your silver 
spoons. I promise you, an honest man or an honest woman, that when you go there as. 
many of you will, for European travel is destined to change its course from SoutherrL 
Europe to those Northern regions, you will have no more molestation or supervisal than in 
Brooklyn or in New York or the quietest Long Island village. 

Calumny the third : Russia and its ruler are so opposed to any other religion except 
the Greek religion, that they will not allow any other religion, that nothing but persecution 
and imprisonment and outrage intolerable await the disciples of any other religion. But 
what are the facts ? I had a long ride in St. Petersburg and its suburbs with the Prefect, a 
brilliant, efficient and loyely man, who is the highest official in the city of St. Petersburg^ 
and whose chief business is to attend the Emperor. I said to him : " I suppose your religion 

is that of the 

Greek Church?'" 
" No," said he, "I 
am a Lutheran.'* 
" What is your 
religion?" I said 
to one of the high- 
est and most influ- 
ential officials at 
St. Petersburg. 
He said : " I am 
of the Church of 
England."- My- 
self, an American, 
of still another 
denomination o f 
Christians, and 
never having been 
inside a Greek 
Church in my life 
until I went to- 

Russia, could not have received more consideration had I been baptized in the Greek Church 
and all my life worshiped at her altars. I had it demonstrated to me very plainly that a, 
man's religion in Russia has nothing to do with his preferment for either office or social 
position. The only questions taken into such consideration are honesty, fidelity, morality 
and adaptation. I had not been in St. Petersburg an hour before I received an invitation ta- 
preach the Gospel of Christ as I believe it. Besides all this, have you forgotten that the 
Crimean War, which shook the earth, grew out of Russia's interference in behalf of the 
persecuted Christians of all nations of Turkey? " But," says some one, " have there not been 
persecutions of other religions in Russia?" No doubt, just as in other times in New 
England we burned witches and as we killed Quakers and as the Jews in America have 
been outrageously treated ever since I can remember, and the Chinese in our land have 
been pelted and their stores torn down, and their way from the steamer wharf to their 
-destined quarters tracked with their own blood. The devil of persecution is in every land. 




WINTER PALACE, RUSSIA. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



419 



and in all ages. Some of us in the different denominations of Christians in America have 
felt the thrust of persecution, because we thought differently or did things differently from 
those who would, if they had the power, put us in a furnace eight times heated, one more 
degree of caloric than Nebuchadnezzar's. Persecutions in all lands, but the Emperor of 
Russia sanctions none of them. I had a most satisfactory talk with the Emperor about the 
religions of the world, and he thinks and feels as you and I do, that religion is something 
between a man and his God, and no one has a right to interfere with it. You may go 
right up to St. Petersburg and Moscow with your Episcopal liturgy or your Presbyterian 
catechism or your Congregationalist's L,iberalisni or your Immersionist's Baptistry, or any 
other religion, and if you mind your own affairs rmd let others mind theirs, you will not be 
molested. 

Calumny the fourth : Siberia is a den of horrors, and to-day people are driven there 
like dumb cattle ; no trial is afforded to the suspected ones, they are put into quicksilver 
mines, where they are 
whipped and starved 
and some day find them- 
selves going around 
without any head. 
Some of them do not 
get so far as Siberia. 
Women, after being tied 
to stakes in the streets, 
are disrobed, and 
whipped to death in the 
presence of howling 
mobs. Offenders hear 
their own flesh siss under 
the hot irons. 

But what are the 
facts? There are no 
kinder people on earth 
than the Russians, and 
to most of them cruelty 
is an impossibility. I 
hold in my hand a card. 
You see on it that red 
circle. That is the government seal on a card giving me permission to see all the 
prisons in St. Petersburg, as I had expressed a wish in that direction. As the messenger 
handed this card to me, he told me that a carriage was at the door for my disposal in visiting 
the prisons. It so happened, however, that I was crowded with engagements and could not 
make the visitation. But do you suppose such cheerful permission and a carriage to boot 
would have been offered me if the prisons of Russia are such hells on earth as they have 
been described to be ? I asked an eminent and distinguished American : " Have you visited 
the prisons of St. Petersburg, and how do they differ from American prisons? " He replied : 
" I have visited them and they are as well ventilated and as well conditioned in eveiy respect 
as the majority of the prisons in America." Are women whipped in the street ? No ; that 
statement comes from the manufactory of fabrication, a manufactory that rims night and 




ISAAC CATHEDRA r,, 



iT. ri';Ti{Rsi'.rR 



420 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



day, so the supply may meet tlie demand. But how about Siberia? My answer is Siberia 
is the prison of Russia, a prison more than twice the size of the United States. John 
Howard, who did more for the improvement of prisoners and the reformation of criminals 
than any man that ever lived, his name a synonym for mercy throughout Christendom, 
declared b)' voice and pen that the system of transportation of criminals from Russia to 
Siberia was an admirable plan, advocating open-air punishment rather than endungeonment, 
and also because it was taking all offenders hundreds of miles away from their evil 
companions. John Howard, after witnessing the plan of deportation of criminals from 
Russia to Siberia, commended it to England. 

If a man commits murder in Russia, he is not electrocuted as we electrocute him, or 
choked to death by a halter as we choke him to death. Murderers and desperate villains 







JEW MERCH.'^NT.S. 



are sent to the hardest parts of Siberia, but no man is sent to Siberia or doomed to any kind 
of punishment in Russia until he has a fair trial. So far as their being hustled off" in 
the night and not knowing why they are exiled or punished is concerned, all the criminals 
in Russia have an open trial before a jury just as we have in America, except in revolu- 
tionary or riotous times, and you know in America at such times the writ of habeas corpus 
is suspended. There are in Russia grand juries and petit juries and the right to challenge the 
jurors, and the prisoner confronts his accuser, and mark this, as in no other coimtry, after 
a prisoner has been condemned by juries and judges he may appeal to the Senate and after 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



421 



that to the Emperor who is con- 
violent and murderous are sent 
the more moderate criminals to 
and those who have only a little 
positively genial for climate, for 
know, that Siberia is so large and 
frigidity to torridity, from almost 
that of Italy. Run your finger 
will find that the lower part of 
of latitude, and the richest part 
degree of latitude. So that Siberia 
to the palm-leaf fans at the 
that ninety per cent of the Rus- 
beria go into a climate milder 
with birds and embroidered with 
the botanists. Much of the soil 
for a plow to liberate them, 
in the vast majority of cases it 
a new start under the best possi- 
is allowed to take his or her fam- 
other country grants. In the 




stantly pardoning. As I said, the 
to the hardest part of Siberia, but 
more propitious parts of Siberia, 
criminality to parts of Siberia 
}-ou ought to know, if }oir do not 
wide and long that it reaches from 
Arctic blast to climate as mild as 
along the map of the world and you 
Siberia is on the forty-fifth degree 
of Italy is on the same forty-fifth 
reaches from the furs at the North 
South. It has been demonstrated 
sian criminals colonized into Si- 
than New York — a land songful 
flora enough manifold to confound 
is a rich loam and harvests wait 
When a criminal is sent to Siberia 
gives him an opportunity to make 
ble circumstances. The criminal 
ily along, and that is a mercy no 
quicksilver mines of Siberia, the 



TOWER OF SOUKARKKF, MOSCOW. 



422 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



hardest place of expatriation, only one-fourth of the miners are criminals. The other 
three-fourths go there because they choose it as a place to earn their living. 

After being in Siberia a while, the condemned go to earning a livelihood, and they 
come to own their own farms, and orchards and vineyards, many of these people coming to 
wealth, and thousands of them under no inducement would leave these parts of Siberia 
which are paradises for salubrity and luxuriance. Now, which do you think is the best 
style of a prison — Siberia or many of our American prisons ? When a man commits a big 
crime in our country, the judge looks into the frightened face of the culprit, and says : 
" You have been found guilty ; I sentence you to the penitentiary for ten years." He goes 
to prison. He is shut up in between four walls. No sunlight. No fresh air. No bath-room. 
Before he has served his ten years, he dies of consumption, or is so enervated that for the 
rest of his life he sits with folded hands a wheezing invalid. In preference to the shut-in 
life of the average American prisoner, give me Siberia. Besides that, when offenders come 

out of prison in 
America what 
chance have they? 
Ask the poorly sup- 
ported societies, 
formed to get these 
people places for 
work. Ask me, to 
whom the newly 
liberated come from 
all the prisons, im- 
ploring what they 
shall do. No one 
will commend them. 
The pallor of incar- 
ceration is on their 
cheek. Who wants 
to employ in factory 
or store a man or 
woman, who, in an- 
swer to the question, 
"Where did you live last?" should make the reply: "State's prison at Auburn or Moya- 
mensing?" Now, in Siberia they have a better chance. They are never spoken of as 
criminals, but as unfortunates, and they are allowed every opportunity of retrieving their 
lost reputation and lost fortunes. I talked with the president of the National Society of 
Russia for the Education and Moralization of the Children of Siberian Convicts. The 
president of that society, appointed by the Emperor, is a lady of great accomplishments, 
and much sympathy, which ilhmiines her face and makes tearful her eyes and tremulous 
her voice. The evening I passed at her house in St. Petersburg was one of the memorable 
events of my lifetime. I will not attempt to pronounce the name of that noble woman, 
appointed by the Emperor as the president of the National Society of Russia for the 
Education and Moralization of the Children of Convicts. Please to name any such national 
society in our countrj', supported by government, for taking care of the children of con- 
victs. You know, if you know anything, that there is no chance in this country for a man 




HOUSE OF PETER THE GREAT, ON AN ISI^AND IN THE NEVA RIVER, ST. PETERSBURG. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



423 



Avho has been imprisoned, or for his children. God pity then: and hasten the time when 
■we shall, by some national institution established by the Congress of the United States, 
imitate the mercy of the Russian Government toward the innocent children of imprisoned 
offenders. He who charges cruelty on the imperial family and the nobility of Russia belies 
men and women as gracious and benignant as ever breathed oxygen. 

I sat at the table of an American in St. Petersburg and beside a baroness who had 
almost impoverished her estates by contribution to the suffering districts of the drought. In 
addition to her charities she went down to the afflicted districts and toiled for their relief 
until she was down with the typhus fever. After recovering from that, she toiled on among 
the sufferers until she was down with the small-pox. She was at St. Petersburg trying to 
recover her health, and was making preparation to return to the afflicted districts. She 
committed to me a literary errand, by which through her translation of the writings of 
eminent Russians, she would furnish free of charge to some American publishing house, 
books the entire proceeds of the sale of which would go to the relief of suffering in the 
drought regions. The Emperor himself gave seventy-five million dollars for the relief of 




GENERAI, VIEW OF THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW. 
The Kremlin is the citadel of Moscow, situated in the centre of the city and enclosing, by a stone wall 7280 feet in circumference, 
several of the grandest buildings in the metropolis, including churches, monasteries, arsenals and museums. In the cathedral called 
Archangel Michael are the tombs of all the Czars down to the time of Peter the Great. The Kremlin is entered by five gateways, the 
most important of which is the Redeemer's Gate, through which Napoleon's army marched when it took possession of Moscow 
in 1S12. 

those suffering from the failure of crops and that is a charity that challenges all history for 
an equal. 

The merciful character of the present Emperor was well illustrated in the following 
occurrence : The man who supervised the assassination of the grand-father of the present 
Emperor, standing in the snow that awful day, when the dynamite shattered to pieces the 
legs of Alexander the Second, — I say the man who supervised all this fled from St. Peters- 
burg and quit Russia. But after a while the man repented of his crime, and wrote to the 
Emperor asking forgiveness for the murder of his father and promising to be a good 
citizen, and asking if he might come back to Russia. The Emperor pardoned the murderer 
of his father and the forgiven assassin is now living in Russia, unless recently deceased. 
When I talked to the Empress concerning the sympathy felt in America for the sufferings 
of the drought-struck regions of Russia, she evinced an absorbing interest and a compassion 
and an emotion of manner and speech such as we men can hardly realize, because it seems 
that God has reserved for woman as her great adornment , the coronet, the tear-jeweled 
coronet of tenderness and commiseration. If yon say that it was a man, a Divine Man that 



424 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



came to save the world, I say, " Yes," but it was a woman that gave the man. Witness all 
the Madonnas, Italian, German, English and Russian, that bloom in the picture gallery of 
Christendom. Son of Mary, have mercy on us ! 

But how about the knout, the cruel Russian knout, that comes down on the bare back 
of agonized criminals? Why, Russia abolished the knout before it was abolished from 

our American navy. But 
how about the political 
prisoners hustled off to Si- 
beria? According to the 
testimony of the most cele- 
brated literary enemy of 
Russia, only four hundred 
and forty-three political 
prisoners were sent to 
Siberia in twenty years. 
How many political prisoners 
did we put in prison pens 
during the four years of Civil 
War ? Well, I guess at least 
one hundred thousand. 
America's one hundred 
thousand political prisoners 
versus Russia's four hun- 
dred and forty-three political 
prisoners. Nearly all these 
four hundred and forty-three 
of twenty years were noble- 
men, or people desperately 
opposed to the emancipation 
of the serfs. And none of 
the political prisoners are 
sent to the famous Kara 
mines. For the most part, 
you are dependent for infor- 
mation upon the testimony 
of prisoners who are sent 
to Siberia. They all say 
they were innocent. Prison- 
ers always are innocent. 
Ask all the prisoners of 
America to-day : " Guilty 
or Not Guilty," and nine- 
teen out of twenty will 
plead, " Not Guilty." Ask them how they like their prison and how they like sheriffs and 
how they like the Government of the United States, and you will find these prisoners 
admire the authority that arrested them and punished them just about as much as the 
political prisoners of Russia like Siberia. 




GREAT VOTIVE CHURCH, MOSCOW, IN WHICH THE CORONATION CERE- 
MONIES ARE PERFORMED. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



425 



But you ask, how will this Russophobia, with which so many have been bitten and 
poisoned, be cured ? By the God of Justice blessing such books and pamphlets as are now 
coming out from Professor de Arnaud of Washington, Mr. Horace Cutter of San Francisco, 
Mr. Morfill of England, and by the opening of our American gates to the writings of some 
twenty-four of the Russian authors and authoresses, in some respects as brilliant as the three 
or four Ritssian authoi-s already known — the translation of those twenty-four authors, which 
I am authorized from Russia to offer free of charge to any responsible American publishing 
house that will do them justice. Let these Russians tell their own story, for they are the only 
ones fully competent to do the work, as none but Americans can fully tell the story of America, 
and none but Germans can fully tell the story of Germany, and none but Englishmen can 
fully tell the story of England, and none but Frenchmen can fully tell the story of France. 




PALACE AND TREASURY AT MOSCOW. 



Meanwhile, let the international defamation come to an end. But I have been asked to say 
something concerning my reception by the imperial family last summer. Stepping from the 
Moscow train on returning to St. Petersburg, an invitation was put in my hand inviting me 
to the palace on the following Friday. I had already seen the Crown Prince in his palace, 
a young man of twenty-four years, educated, clear-eyed, affable, handsome, and on him all 
the signs of good habits. I am sure he will be fitted for the throne when in the roll of years 
he shall be called to mount it. But this invitation from the Emperor I had not expected. 
On the day appointed I took the train for Peterhof, about nine or ten miles from St. 
Petersburg. A messenger the day before called upon me at the hotel and gave me informa- 
tion as to what train to take. He met me at the train. After a ride throngh a beautiful 
region of country I arrived at the station near the imperial grounds. The royal carriage 



426 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



was waiting, and the two decorated representatives of the place took me to a building where 
a suite of three rooms was appointed me where I rested and lunched and examined the 
flowers and walked under the trees. After an hour and a half I was told that the carriage 
was waiting, and after a ride among fountains and statuary and arbors and roads winding 
through parks of trees from all lands, and flower-beds, circular and stellar, and spread out in 

a very carnage ox 
color, I dismounted 
at the palace of the 
Emperor. Having- 
entered, I was taken 
to a waiting-room, 
where I had a long 
conversation with an 
aged prince who has 
for many years waited 
upon the imperial 
family. He asked me 
many questions about 
America, especially 
about the coming 
Chicago World's 
Fair, which he re- 
gretted not being able 
to visit. After awhile 
word came that the 
Emperor was ready 
to receive me. I was 
led up by a somewhat 
labyrinthine way, 
among lines of ser- 
vants, and to what 
seemed to be the third 
story of the palace, 
where I was again 
halted. An official 
entered the Emper- 
or's room and re- 
turned, leaving the 
door open, and re- 
questing me to enter. 
I found the Emperor 
standing mid-floor, 

and beside a desk on which he had been writing, a desk loaded with papers. The 
Emperor greeted me with nmch heartiness. And at first glance, seeing him to be a splendid 
gentleman, with no airs of pretension and as artless as any man I ever saw, it seemed to me 
that we were old friends at the start. " Sit down," he said. " Sit down," pointing to a chair 
on one side of a table, while he took the chair on the other. He is the picture of good 




r,07,ll IvNAJMia.LHD TKA SERVICE 

Presented by Alexander ni., Emperor of Russia, lo T. DeWitt Talmage, through Prince 
Cantacusine, Russian Minister to United States, in Philadelphia Harbor, on Russian warship, 
June, 1892. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



427 



health, and everything in his looks indicate temperate living. I could easily understand 
how, when he gets among the children, his own and his nephews and nieces, he challenges 
them to pull him down, and a half dozen tugging at him, fail to make him budge and then 

the youngsters chase him under the trees and his nephews and nieces shout at him, 

" Uncle Sasha ! Uncle Sasha !" he can / *l\ be the liveliest one of all the romping 
group. The photographs of the Czar do / f \ not give half the kindliness or vivacity 
of his countenance. If I were asked in / T \ few words to give the impression I 
got of the character of the Emperor, / ^Bk. \ from his manner and conversation 
I would say : " He is a strong man any / ^J^BBml^ \ way you take him." At the ver\' 
opening of the conversation I spoke /j^S9ll9KS^\ of his rugged and robust physique. 




TEMPLE OF OXTR SAVIOUR, MOSCOW 



and asked him how he got and kept that brawn and muscle and wondrous vitality. 
He rides. He walks. He hews with an axe. He races with his boj^s. He takes a 
cheerful view of life. He worships God. He lives a moral life. He easily digests his 
food. He fears nothing. At forty-seven, he has the appearance of being thirty-five. His 
autograph, which he gave me, looks like a battlefield, but of ink instead of blood. Beside 
all that, he has a happy home and his domestic life is beyond criticism. He has a mellow 
voice, animated manner, radiant coiintenance. He is about si.\ feet two inclies in stature 



428 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



and well proportioned. He said to me, the Empress will see you, but it will be in another 
room. So shaking hands twice and with an intermingling of God bless you we parted, 
and following a chamberlain I descended to the first floor and waited a few moments in an 
outer room, and then entered the reception-room of the Empress. 

Oh, she is a June morning ! She stood mid-floor in her drawing-room when I entered. 
She is everv inch an Empress. Majesty and grace and loveliness are hers. Her pictures 
do not give her best expression. When I said to her : " There will be no great war in our 
time, because the weapons of war have been fashioned for such wholesale destruction that 
the rulers of the earth will prefer arbitration to massacre," she replied: " Oh, I hope so," 
and then we discoursed of international brotherhood, and she gave her exalted idea of 
the United States, and in accurate, though deliberate, English, had something charming to 
sav on man}- things. She said : " You must see my children ! " and opening the door she 




AUTOGRAPH OF THE DOWAGER-EMPRESS OF RUSSIA. 



The above are the autographs of the Empe 



ad Dowager-Empress of Russia, given to i 



1 the Palace at Peterhof. 



introduced them with enthusiasm of aflfection, saying : " This, my daughter, is seventeen 
years of age. One of the boys is at sea. Here is another son and here another daughter. 
A jollier group never burst forth from the doors of a school-room. The older daughter 
is affianced to a foreign dignitary, and is fair and intelligent, and seemed to be a girl of 
broad, common sense, and will be a queen in any house to which she is taken. The youngest 
girl came into the room almost on a skip, a bundle of fun, laughing and sunshiny, and 
could hardly stand still long enough to shake hands. Standing back by the door, till I 
drew him forward, was a prince of about eight years, collar cut sailor shape, a splendid boy, 
high forehead, but all boy, and had evidently' come in from fl}ing kite or playing ball. 
After giving me some flowers for my wife, and we had wished for each other all happiness 
in the here and the hereafter, I left the room, impressed as much with the idea of a Chris- 
tian home as with the grandeurs of a palace. After dining I departed. Nothing more in 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



429 



the shape of courtesy could have been shown me 
Emperor's carriage and its attendants took me to 
accompanied me to the door 
burg. If all the rulers of 
spirit which belongs to those 
be long before the bells of 
and I think the bells will 
joy of those coming times, 
the full sweetness and 
have heard the bells of 
them on the evening of 
After examining at the 
dred cannons which 
snow after Napoleon 
retreated from Mos- 
cow, each cannon 
deep cut with the 
letter " N," I ascend- 
ed a tower about 
three hundred feet 
high, just before 
sunset, and on 
each platform 
there were bells. 



than was demonstrated that day. The 
the railroad station, and his messenger 
of my hotel in St. Peters- 
the earth were of the same' 
I met that day it would not 
the millennium would ring, 
have much to do with the 
But you can hardly know 
power of bells unless you 
Moscow ring as I heard 
my visit to that great city. 
Kremlin some nine hun- 
were picked out of the 




CATHEDRAT. OF OSI.AUKINO, MOSCOW. 



large and small, and I climbed up among tlie bells, and then as I reached the top, all the 
bells imderneath me began to ring, and they were joined b}- the bells of fourteen hundred 
towers and domes and turrets. Some of the bells sent out a faint tinkle of sound, a sweet 



43° 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



tintinnabulation that seemed to bubble in the air, and others thundered forth boom after 
boom, boom after boom, until it seemed to shake the earth and fill the heavens — sounds so 
weird, so sweet, so awful, so grand, so charming, so tremendous, so soft, so rippling, so rever- 
berating — and they seemed to wreathe and whirl, and rise, and sink, and burst, and roll, and 
mount and die. When Napoleon saw Moscow burn, it could not have been more brilliant 
than when I saw all the fourteen hundred turrets aflame with the sunset, roofs of gold and 
walls of malachite, and pillars of porphyry and balustrades of mosaic, and visions of lapus 
lazuli, and architecture of all colors mingling the brown of autumnal forests and the blue of 
summer heavens, and the conflagration of morning skies, and the green of rich meadows 
and the foam of tossing seas. The mingling of so many colors with so many sounds was 
an entrancement almost too much for human nerves or human eyes or human ears. But 
all that was tame compared with the day of millennial glory that is coming to our world 
when the bells of joy shall sound, not in the sunset, but in the sunrise, ringing out " peace 
on earth good will to men." From the domes of all the churches, from the domes of all 
the palaces, from the domes of all the capitols, fronr the domes of all the cities, from the 
domes of all the nations — Bells ! Bells ! Bells ! 

Alas ! Since writing the above Alexander the Third has died, and the world has been 
filled with lamentation. The beautiful Empress is broken-hearted, and the children are 
fatherless. Nicholas the Second has mounted the throne, and I am expecting from what I 
saw of him that he will follow in the footsteps of his excellent father. 




CHAPTER XLIV. 

GOSPEL OF BREAD. 

nWENTY-FIVE million people a-hungered in Russia by reason of three years 
of drought had called forth the sympathies of the world, and the religious paper 
with which I am connected had at the call of its publisher sent about $35,000 
worth of breadstuffs by the ship Leo which I saw come to the docks about 
three miles down the river from St. Petersburg. On a beautiful yacht we left the wharf of St. 
Petersburg about eleven o'clock in the morning, and having on board the mayor of the city, a 
representative of royalty, counts and countesses, our distinguished Consul General Dr. 




DR. XALMAGE, ON GANG-PLA>;K OF SHIP LEO, RESPONDING TO A SPEECH BY THE MAYOR AND REPRESEN- 
TATIVES OF ROYALTY, .ST. PETERSBURG. 

Crawford, and chief citizens interested in the international charity, and we .soon reached the 
■wharf toward which the steamer Leo was swinging up. The gang-plank of the ship thrown 
■out, the mayor of the city took his place upon it and made an address appreciative of 
American generosity. He was followed by the representative of royalty on the same theme. 
It never occurred to me that I would be expected to respond until the eyes of all those 
present were turned toward me. It was in many respects the most tr>-ing moment of my 

(431) 



432 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

public life. While I was doing as well as I could, I saw a scene never to be forgotten. It 
was the imperial freight train rolling down to the wharf to receive the breadstuffs from the 
steamer Leo, and carry them to the starving. On each car was a flag, the Russian and the 
American flags alternating. At that procession of flags all eyes were filled with tears. 
Hundreds of working people stood on the banks of the river to transfer, free of charge, the 
American donation of bread to the rail train. When a few days after I saw the Czarewitch, 
or Crown Prince, now Emperor Nicholas the Second, he referred to that scene, and the part I 
had taken in it. A few days after I had not long to remain in the ante-room of the Crown 
Prince at his palace. A chamberlain came out before my entrance to ask in what language 
I would prefer to converse, and I responded, "English." As the door opened I found myself 
in the presence of a man as artless as any clerk of a dry goods store, or any blacksmith at 
his anvil. The Crown Prince had nothing in his bearing to indicate that he would ever 
inherit a throne. His photograph, which he sent me some months after my arrival at liome> 
I believe is to be put, together with his autograph, upon a page of this book. Amiability, 
kindness and sympathy are in the features. But stamped upon all of them is strength and 
firmness and determination. He looks more like his mother than his father. He has not 
now the robustness his father had before the railroad accident, nor is he by some inches as 
great in stature. His marriage to Princess Alex was exactly to the wishes of his father 
and mother, and was a case not of international plotting, or for political reasons, but a case 
of old-fashioned love. I prophesy for Nicholas the Second a long and happy reign ! 

Of course I can never forget my Rxissian experiences, and to remind me of them I have 
only to look at the exquisite presentation made me after I got home, by Emperor Alexander the 
■Third. Prince Cantacusine, the Russian Minister Plenipotentiary at W^ashington, telegraphed 
me that he had a presentation to make me from the Emperor and it must be done on 
Russian soil, and so he asked me to come on board a Russian warship lying" in Philadelphia 
harbor. On that vessel the Prince gave me a complete gold enameled tea service accom- 
panied by a message of love which I cannot now think of without deep emotion since 
Emperor Alexander has disappeared from the palaces of earth to take his place, as I believe, 
in the palaces of heaven. 



CHAPTER XLV. 



GREAT BRITAIN. 

BET me forewarn my readers that I look at things from a partial standpoint, and that 
at any moment my heart may run away with m}- head. Whatever other kind of 
ink I use in these sketches I will not use blue. If I cannot find anything but 
blue ink I will not write at all. Rather than that, I would even prefer red ink, 
for that is the color of the morning. I would not be offended if I am charged with writing 
with ink verdant or green, for that is a very respectable color, being the same as the palm- 
leaf, and the rushes, and some parts of the deep sea. I shall paint with the cheeriest color I 
can find in the studio. If I find a tear I will hold it up till in the light it becomes a globule 
of melted sunshine. 

England and Scotland have always treated me so magnificently that I am in a mood to 
be pleased with everything. 

Shaking hands every day with thousands of people in halls and churches, and at rail- 
way stations, till my right hand is disabled and fit only for a sling, because of the stout 




BUCKINGHAM PALACE, FRONT VIEW. 

grips, accompanied by emphatic " God bless you," I am swamped for the work of harsh 
criticism. I tell you at the start, I like England, her landscapes, her cities, her government, 
her common people, and her aristocracy. I here part forever with all the cynical and satur- 
nine. I do not want to live on the same street with them in heaven. They will always 
be singing out of tune, and searching for fractures in the amethyst, and finding fault with 
the country. Give them a world to themselves where they can have an eternity of pouting, 
a sky full of drizzle-drozzle, an owl in each tree to hoot away the hours, and a kennel of 
snarling rat terriers to nip the robe of every angelic intruder. 
2S (433 J 



434 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



After another long voyage we swing into the English harbor. It is night, and rockets, 
shot up from- the stern of the ship, invite the pilot-boat and the steam tug to come out to 
meet us. The sea has its " back up," and the pilot-boat makes a dash for our steamer, and 
misses it ; another dash, and misses it again. Then we see the blue and red lights of the tug- 
boat coming out, as much as to say — " I will show you how to catch a steamer !" aims at it, 
but crosses in front of our prow ; aims at it again, but falls behind our stern. We stand on 
deck in the sopping rain to watch this aquatic game, until wearied we retire to our room for 
slumber. As we are falling to sleep, there is a sudden charge of stout men into our private 
apartment. 

What is the matter now? 

Have the old-time pirates resuscitated their business, and are we to be seized and 
made to walk the plank ? By the dim light from the hall I see the three men by 
mistake putting out their hands toward the berth in which sleeps the better half of us. 
As I look down from the upper berth I hear loud voices saving, " Welcome to Eng- 




EUCKINGHAM PALACE, SIDE VIEW. 



land." By delegation London, Eeeds and Dublin have looked in upon us. I respond 
in my shirt-sleeves, but I am so surprised at the sudden incursion that the response is not 
worthy of the occasion, and amounts only to a sudden ejaculation of " Where did you 
come from ?" 

That scene was only a forerunner of the cordiality and generosity of these people of 
Great Britain toward strangers. Like Americans they have been much lied about. They 
are warm-hearted and genial to the last degree. Their homes, their carriages, their hearts, 
are all wide open. We have not found what Americans call the " grouty Englishman." 
His digestion is better than that of the American, and hence he can afford to be better 
natured. If a man has to wrestle with a lamb chop three hours after swallowing it, his good 
humor is exhausted. The contest in his body leaves him no strength for the battle with the 
world. Foreign wars are not so destructive as internal. When things sour on a man's 
stomach they make him sour with all the world. Some of us need not more a " new heart" 
according to the gospel than a " new liver " according to physiology. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



435 



This season of all others tests an Englishman's spirits. It is unprecedented for rainy 
weather, and in some of the churches prayers had been offered for a cessation of moisture. 
It has rained some time every day, but this makes us appreciate the sun better when it does 
come out. The clouds, like a veil to a beautiful face, add to the attractiveness by only occa- 
sionally being withdrawn. When the sun in summer shines from morning till night with 
intense glare we always feel that he is rather overdoing the business. There is nothing 




BUCKINGHAM PALACPl THRONK ROOM. 

more exquisite than a cloud when it is richly edged and irradiated. A cloudless sky is a 
bare wall. A sky hung with clouds in all stages of illumination is a Louvre and Luxem- 
bourg. Clouds are pictures drawn in water colors. Who knows but that Raphael and 
Rubens, gone up higher, may sometimes come out and help in the coloring of the canvas of 
the morning with brush of sunbeam, putting within sight of our eyes the constellated glories 
iDelonsringf to the other side of the Border . 



436 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



Now, if in Lliis shadowed weather, Englishmen can be so genial, I would like to know 
how they are in the usual summer brightness. It is a delusion that Englishmen delight to 
grumble. As near as I can judge, each community appoints some one to do the grumbling for 
it, and he becomes the champion grumbler. One pulpit will do all the grumbling for all the 
pulpits in the town ; one newspaper all the grumbling for the journalists ; one prominent 
citizen the grumbling for all the citizens. Such a one becomes the pet growler of the 
community. All the scandal-mongers carry to him forage. They feed him with all the 
disagreeable things of the community. His capacity for offal is awful. They rub him 
down with the ragged edge of a slander. Job describes this wild ass of the forest as 
snufSng up the east wind. Like others of his kind, he eats thistles. These champion 
growlers of English communities do all that kind of work, leaving others nothing to do 




MARLBOROUGH HOUSE, LONDON, RESIDENCK OF PRINCE OF WALES. 

but to be agreeable. Delightful arrangement ! Let us transfer it to America, and have the 
fault-finding in church and state done by committee. Take the most powerful " bear " out 
of Wall street and let him do the croaking for all the brokers. Take some ecclesiastic, 
who has swallowed his religion crosswise and got it stranglingly fast in his wind-pipe, to 
hunt down all the heresy, real or fancied. Get some one newspaper to do all the work of 
mauling reputations, exposing domestic infelicities and reporting divorce cases. Let one 
female " gad about," gathering all the gossip, put it up in bottles properly labeled and peddle 
it about from house to house in small vials for those who could stand only a little, or in 
large bottles, as it may be required. Let her be known as the championess of tittle-tattle. 
So men and women might delegate to one or more the disagreeables of the world. And, 
as at different times America and England have disputed with each other for supremacy 



, THE WORLD AS SEEN* TO-DAY. 437 

with oar, and bat, and rifle, let the champion American growler go forth to dispute with the 
champion English growler for the belt of the world. Let the da}' chosen for the contest be a 
commingling of Scotch mist and English cloudiness and American drizzle. Let them go 
at each other with threats and annoyances and recriminations. Let all fault-finders the 
world over stand round the ring watching the fate of the two nations. The Englishman 
might draw the first blood, but the American will prove a full match for him at the last. 
The struggle may be long and fearful, and the excitement surpass that of Creedmoor 
shooting and Ascot and Derby races, but I think neither would gain the victory. Indeed, 
I would like to see them both go down together in the contest and both slain. Then would 
perish from the earth the bickerings and the suspicions, thesnarlingsand the backbi tings of 
the world. Bury the two champions in the same grave, their clubs with them, covering them 
with a bank of nettles. Read for their funeral service the report of the stock market just 
after some great failure. Plant at the head of it a little nightshade, and at the foot of it 
a little mix vomica. 

For epitaph : " Here lies Complaint and Hypercriticism ; Born in the year one ; Died in 
the year 1895. May the resurrection trumpet, that blows others up into the light, blow 
these despicable miscreants deeper down into oblivion." 

Speaking of championship reminds me that I was invited last week to distribute the 
English prizes to the best rower. I regretted I could not be present. 

I honor muscle. As the world's heart improves its arm will grow stronger. In the 
millennium, what oar we will paddle, what crickets we will play, what wrestlers we will 
throw! We are told in that day there are to be " bells on the horses," and that means music 
and innocent gayety, and sleigh rides and swift teams, and liveliness, and good cheer, and 
tintinnabulation. That there is betting at these athletic contests we deplore, but we cannot 
stop healthful amusements because people abuse them. There are men who bet on every- 
thing. Every time the log was thrown from the stern of our ship, there were wagers lost 
and won. Passengers bet abotit which foot in the morning the captain would first put 
out of the door of his office, the right or the left foot. Betting aboiit the kind of soup we 
should have foir dinner. Betting about the hour of our arrival. But all this betting is no 
reason why we should not take steamers across the ocean. 

For the cause of civilization, we will capture the world's oars, and bats, and chess- 
boards, and rifles. We want sanctified brawn. When the animals passed Adam in Eden to 
get their names, they did not dare even to growl at that first athlete. Had he been like unto 
a modern specimen of weak delicacy, instead of his naming them, they might have swallowed 
him up, giving him their own name of lion or bear. We want more Samsons ; not to 
carry off gates, but to hang new ones ; not to set foxes' tails on fire, but to put the torch to 
the world's shams ; not to pull down pillars, but to build temples of righteousness ; not to 
slay Philistines with the jaw bone of an ass, but to kill the ass of the world's stupidity and 
inanition. While the schools go on to build the head of the coming n^an, and the church 
goes on to build his heart, let our out-door recreations go on to build his body. If that be 
the coming man, the sooner he comes the better. 



We all know something of how England looks on the upper side, but we always had 
a desire to get under it and look up. So we accepted an invitation to plunge into one of 
her coal mines near Shefiield. With the ladies of our party we are at the top of the Nun- 
nery Colliery. We have no pleasant anticipations of the descent into the great depths of 



438 



THfi EARTH GIRDLED. 



the earth. We put on caps and overcoats as protection from the blackness of the coal. 
Each one is armed with a small lantern. After taking a long breath, in case we should not 
very soon get another opportunity, we step into what might be called a rough elevator, but 
which is called " a cage." We stand in the centre and throw our arms over a bar and hold 
fast. The sides of the cage are not tightly inclosed; and the only door at the entrance on 
either side is the body of the guide, who stands there to keep the passengers in their 




- CORNER IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, LONDON. 

place in case of panic. We are to drop six hundred and sixt)' feet. About the capacity of 
the machinery to drop us we have no doubt, but the question is about the sudden halt at the 
bottom of the mine. With steam-power we are lowered, only one rope of steel at the top 
of the cage deciding whether the three of m}' party and our two guides shall stop at the 
foot of the shaft or go on to a landing place in the next world. 

" All right ? " asked the man standing on the outside of the cage, with upward 
inflection of voice. " All right," answered one of the guides, with downward inflection. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 439 

We had suggested to an attendant that we were in no hurry to get to the bottom, and that 
there were several trains of cars that could take us in time to our next engagement, and 
therefore we might as well be dropped a little more deliberately than usual. But all that had 
no efEect. The signal given, down we went. We had the sensation of being parted about 
the waistband. We had fallen from hay-mows in boyhood and from apple-trees, and had 
been swung higher than we wanted to swing, but this was a compression of all those dis- 
agreeable feelings into one wrench of the ribs from the hip bone. We were told it was only 
a minute, but it must have been a minute stretched six hundred and sixty feet long. Arriv- 
ing at the bottom we stepped into an arched room and stopped a few minutes to get our eyes 
and lungs used to the darkness and the atmosphere. Then one guide ahead and one guide 
behind, and by the dim light of our lanterns we started through the long black corridors. 
Past us rushed trains of cars laden with coal. Further and further we went into the darkness 
that seemed the more appalling as it pailed for a little at the touch of our lights. Beams 
of wood keep up the roofs of coal, while the sides look as if any moment large masses might 
roll down. 

This mine, after being worked twelve years, shows no signs of exhaustion. Seven 
hundred men are still plunging their crowbars and pick-axes. This is what does so much 
to make England great. This is a chilly world, and all nations must have coal. The Duke 
of Norfolk owns these mines, but all England feels the adv-antage of this indescribable 
weather hidden in the cellars of the earth. 

Talking with the miners, they all seem cheerful and unharmed by the eternal shadows 
in which so much of their lives are spent. They pass eight hours in the mine, and then 
have sixteen hours out. A stout, tall miner by the name of Henr}- Walters, told us that he 
had been working in the mines forty-five years. There are few men toiling above ground 
who look as healthy as this man, for near half a century toiling under ground. But it is a 
hard life anyhow you make it. Standing down here amid the foundations of the earth, the 
memories of colliery accidents at Blantyre, and Risca, and Hartley, come shuddering and 
groaning through the wilderness of underground night. It will take the stoutest and most 
resounding blast of archangelic trumpet to fetch up the bodies of the miners from such 
entombment. For four shillings a day, which of us would like this banishment from 
the sunshine ? A sepulchre is not inviting, whether built out of coal or limestone. Sittings 
andwalking all daylong in the light that bathes the streets and fields, or streams through 
our windows, do we realize sympathetically how many thousands of men spend their lives 
in the midnight, hewing more midnight from the sides of the caverns ? But how suggestive 
that out of these chunks of darkness that tumble to the miners' feet we secure warmth and 
light for our homes, and momentum for our steamships. The brightest light of this world 
we chip oiit of its darkness. Out of our own trials we get warmth of sympathy for others. 
Our past troubles are the black fuel which we heave into the furnace of future enterprises. 
As the miners cut the wealth of England out of the caverns, so we may hew out of the 
midnight caverns of misfortune the brightest treasures of character and usefulness. 

But we must say good-bye to these underground workers. We get into the " cage," 
and prepare for ascent. The guides warn us that as we near the top, and the speed of the 
" cage " is slackened, the sensation will be somewhat distressing. Sure enough ! We get 
aboard, throw our arms over the iron bar with a stout hug : the signal of " all ready '* 
being given, we fly upward. Coming near the top, at the slackening speed, it seems as if 
the rope must have broken, and that we are dropping to the bottom of the mine. A few 
slight " oils," and the delusion passes, and we are in the sunlight. Bless Ciod for this 



440 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



heavenly mixture ! There is nothing Hke it. No artifice can successfully imitate it. You 
need to spend a few hours deep down in an English mine to appreciate it. In the contrast 
it seems more mellow, more golden, more entrancing. You take off your hat and bathe 
in it, You feel that the world needs more of it. Sunshine for the body. Sunshine for 
the mind. Sunshine for the soul. Sunshine of earth. Sunshine of heaven. In the words 
of the old philosopher, " Stand out of my sunshine ! " Look here ! What do we want any 
more of these miners' lamps ? They might as well be extinguished. Their faint flicker 
is absurd in the face of the noonday. They were useful to show us where to tread among 
the seams of coal. They were good to light up the genial faces of the miners while we 
talked to them about their wages and their families. 

Lamps are valuable in a mine. But blow them out, now that we stand under the 

at noon, hangs pendent from the 
lish heavens. So all the tallow 



chandelier which at twelve o'clock 
frescoed dome of these blue Eng- 
dips of earthly joy will be sub- 
next world strikes twelve for ce- 



merged when the old belfry of the 
lestial noon. Departure from this 




ST. PAUL S, FROM BANKSIDE. 



world for the good will be only getting out of the hard working mine of earthly fatigues 
into the everlasting radiance of Edenic midsummer. Come now ! Stop moralizing and 
•drop that lantern of the collieries. 



We will take off our hats in the presence of this old ruin of Kirkstall Abbey near 
Leeds. But what is the use of these Kirkstalls and Melroses and this everlasting round of 
abbeys and monasteries and ruined churches ? Why are they of any more importance than 
any other heap of stones or bricks? Yoke the ox-team and plow them under. Take 
iconoclastic hammer, and say dust to dust. Graze the sheep and cattle among the dishon- 
ored fragments or among the demolished abbey at Meaux. Caricature Walter Scott's 
paroxysm of admiration for moonlight on crumbling arch. 




ST. PAUL'S CATHKIJKAI,, I,OND0N. 



1.-11' J 



442 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

No ! no ! there is nothing that impresses us like these old ruined abbeys, and many of 
the occupied churches of to-day are not of so much use. What a perpetual and tremendous 
attestation of the better aspirations of the human race ! They consider no arch too lofty, 
no tracery too exquisite, no architecture too ponderous, or airy, or elaborate, or expensive, to 
express the meaning of the soul. In letters of eternal granite they wrote it, and in windows 
of undying masterpiece they pictured their longing for God and heaven. 

As we sit down at Kirkstall among the fragments of this ecclesiastical wreck, floated 
to us from the past centuries, we are overpowered with historical reminiscence, and the 
abbots of seven and eight hundred years ago come and sit down beside us. The summer air 
breathing through the deserted sacristy, and interlaced scrolls, and silent nave and choir, and 
clustered piers, makes us dream}', and perhaps we see more than we could see if wide 
awake. The columns bearing the wounds of centuries, as we look at them, heal into the 
health of their original proportion. By supernatural pulley the stones rise to their old 
places. The water of baptism sparkles again in the restored font. The color of the sun- 
light changing, I look up and see the pictured glass of the thirteenth century. Feeling 
something cool under my foot, lo, it is the ornamented tile restored from ages vanished. 

I hear a shuffling, and all the aisles are full of the feet of the living of six hundred 
years ago, in old style of apparel, and the living of eight hundred years ago, and the living 
of five hundred years ago. And I hear a rumbling of voices, and lo, the monks of all the 
past are reciting their service. Here are Leonard Windress, and William Lufton, and John 
Shaw, and Richard Batson. And this is Archbishop Cranmer, come more to look after his 
property than to join in the religious ceremonies. And those two persons in the south 
transept are Queen Elizabeth, and Peter Asheton, a gentleman to whom she is making 
over the Abbey. See these pale and nervous souls kneeling in the penitential cell crying 
over sins committed eight hundred years ago. On the buttress of that tower the two letters 
*' W " and " M " seem to call back William Marshall, the old abbot who ordered the inscrip- 
tion, and while we are talking with him and deprecate the folly of a man inscribing his 
own name on a temple reared to the Almighty, a chime of bells, probably hung there in the 
fifteenth century, but long ago lost, yet rehung to-day by invisible hands, ring out first a 
^'Wedding March" for all the marriages solemnized in that consecrated place, and then 
strike a dirge for all its burials ; and, last of all, rousing themselves to, sound the jubilee 
of all nations, calling to York Minster and St. Paul, and Salisbury, and all the dead abbeys 
of the past, and all the living cathedrals of the present, to celebrate the millennium of the 
world's deliverance, and all the chapels, and sacristies, and choristers, and penitential cells 
respond Amen ! Amen ! And then a shaft of light broke through the arched window 
horizontally, and a shaft of light dropped perpendicularly, and crossed each other, but I 
noticed that the perpendicular shaft was longer than the horizontal shaft, and lo ! and 
behold ! I saw that the old Monastery of Kirkstall was in attitude of worship crossing itself. 

My guide-book at this point dropped from my hand and woke me, and I found a young 
artist on a ladder copying the sculptured adornments over the west doorway. " What ! " I said 
to myself, " must the nineteenth century copy the twelfth ? " 

Even so. The highest and most enterprising art of our day cannot crowd past the 
windows and doors of eight hundred years ago. The ages move in a circle, and it maj' take 
the world two thousand years before it can again do the ribbons and skeins of granite in 
York Minster or Kirkstall Monastery. While that artist hangs to the ladder, taking on his 
sketch-book the tracery of the doorway, he makes us think of the artist murderer who used 
to stand in that very place doing the same things — sketching the doorway and stealing the 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



443 



heart of a maiden. He was more desperado than artist. By night, with a gang of outlaws, 
he played the highwayman. A citizen with a large sum of money, passing near the abbey, 
was robbed and murdered. Mary Clarkson, the maiden, was in the abbey one night, having 
wandered there with troubled mind. While there she saw a group of men carrying a corpse, 
which they came and buried in one part of the ruined abbey. The hat of one of them 
blew off and rolled to Mary Clarkson's feet, where she sat unobserved. It was found the 
next day to be the hat of her lover, whom she had as yet not suspected of evil. William 
Bedford was approaching the town to claim his bride ; but the true character of the villain 
having been discovered, the constables seized him, and Mary Clarkson, urged by her own 
sense of what was right, appeared to testify against him. The story of the corpse carried 




FLEET STREET AND ST. PAUL'S, I.oxnnx. 



to Kirkstall Abbey, and the identification by Mary of the hat, brought to the gallows the 
artist desperada So, under one ancient, crumbling, transcendent doorway, meet devotion 
and crime, sin and virtue, the heavenly and the diabolical. 



WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE. 

" Pray come to Ha warden to-morrow. 

Gladstone." 

That was the telegram handed me in the Grand Hotel, London. I was on my way 
home to America. Two or three days before taking steamer for New York, the above 
delightful invitation came from Mr. Gladstone. I had seen liim a few years before 
in church at the baptism of his grandchild, but had no communication with liim, 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



445 



althoiigli our eyes had met, and in the crowded church I moved over to where I 
thought I would meet him, and my wife said that he moved over to where I had 
stood and looked around for me, for we all saw he wondered who I was, as he 
intimated when I saw him, two or three years afterward. Now, Hawarden, or Har- 
den, as they pronounce it in England, is five or six miles from Chester, and so I 
took it on my way from London to the steamer. I was met by a servant at the 
door of Mr. Gladstone's castle 
and admitted into a room, 
where I waited not more than 
five minutes, when Mr. Glad- 
stone entered with lithe and 
elastic step and a cordiality of 
manner that evidenced itself in 
both hands put out in welcom- 
ing grasp. He immediately 
spoke of the wide publication 
of my sermons in Great Britain 
and other lands, and asked me 
more questions about them than 
I could easily answer. He soon 
proposed a walk through his 
estate, and, calling his dog to 
follow, we started not so much 
for a walk as a run. He is the 
only man I ever walked with 
that walked fast enough. We 
ran up and down the hills of 
his splendid park while he 
showed me here and there the 
smooth stumps of the trees he 
had cut down, and pointed out 
one where an English lord visit- 
ing him had cut down a tree, 
but the exertion was too much 
for him, and he died of heart 
disease. Mr. Gladstone re- 
marked, " No man who has 
heart disease ought to use the 
axe. Now that stump is the 
place where my friend used the 
axe and died." While talking 
of trees he told with great glee of a fabulous story concerning a tree in Califor- 
nia, how two men were cutting on the opposite sides of it for many days, each 
one not knowing that any one else was in the forest, until, their work nearly 
done, they met at the heart of the tree. Kindred to that, he .said, was the stor>- 
of the fish in one of our American lakes so large that when a fish was taken out of 
the water the lake was perceptibly lowered. Ever and anon Mr. Gladstone would 




CI.AD.STONK IN H.'iWARDKN WOOD. 



446 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

call his dog by name, and, picking up a stick, would spit upon it and hurl it far 
away, and as the dog would run and fetch it, Mr. Gladstone would say, " Look at 
that dog's eye. Is he not a fine fellow ? " But for the most of the time Mr. Gladstone 
was engaged in remarks on important political or religious topics. In the velocity 
and variety of his questions I never heard his like. He has great interest in trees, 
some of them four and five hundred years old, and he would stop here and there to 
give me the lineage, the history, and characteristics of a tree. Here and there were 
old and decrepit trees bandaged, their arms in splints. " Look at that sycamore," 
said he. "Did you find in the Holy Land a sycamore more thrifty than that?" 
He said, " Because I wield the axe I am sometimes represented as destroying trees ; 
I only destroy the bad to help the good." 

He spoke with evident pleasure of the fact that he had at different times thrown open 
his park to the people, and continued, " They never abused the opportunity." 

He asked with a good deal of emphasis, " Is there not danger in America from the 
increase of divorce. I hear that in 5'our South Carolina there is no divorce at all. That, 
I believe, is the right idea. Remarriage ought to be forbidden for divorced persons. If 
there were no possibility of remarriage there would be no divorce." 

While on positively religious subjects he said, " I read something in Augustine when 
I was a boy which struck me with great force, and I still feel its force, namely, the asser- 
tion ' When the human race rebelled against God the lower nature of man as a consequence 
rebelled against the higher nature.' " I asked him if the passage of the years confinned or 
weakened his faith in Christianity. At the putting of this question, although we were 
going at great speed, he halted on the hillside and looking me in the eyes with earnestness 
and solemnity that made me quake as he replied, " Dr. Talmage, my only hope for the 
world is in the bringing of the human mind into contact with the divine revelation. 
Nearly all the men at the top in our country are believers in the Christian religion. The 
four leading physicians of England are devout Christian men." Then he called their 
names and among them the name of his own family physician. He went on to say, 
" I have been forty-seven years in the Cabinet of my country, and during those times I have 
been associated with sixty of the chief intellects of the century, and I can think of biit five 
of the sixty who were not professors of the Christian religion, and those five were all 
respecters of it. Talk about the questions of the day ! There is only one question, and 
that is how to apply the Gospel to all circumstances and conditions. It can and will correct 
all that is wrong. I am, after a long and busy life, more than ever confirmed in my faith ■ 
in Christianity." 

" Have 3'ou any of the terrible agnosticism in America ? I am glad that none of my 
children are afflicted with it." 

So the conversation went on. Before reaching the castle Mr. Gladstone made a remark 
which led me to ask him if he did not think that sometimes people had a poor religion or 
no religion at all in their heads and yet had a good religion in their hearts, and he replied : 
" I have no doubt of it, and I can give you an illustration. Lord Napier was buried yester- 
day at St. Paul's Cathedral." I said, " Yes, I was present at the obsequies." " Well," said 
Mr. Gladstone, " after the war in Africa was over Lord Napier was here for a few days at 
the invitation of Mrs. Gladstone and myself and we were walking in this very place where 
we are now walking and Lord Napier gave me this remarkable incident. He said : ' When 
we were about to leave Africa we had a soldier with a broken leg and we did not know 
what to do with him. He was too sick to take along with us, and we did not like to leave 




RIGHT HON. VVM. E. GLADSTONii. 



i447) 



448 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

him among barbarians. So I said : " Fetch him along anyhow ; better have him die on 
the way than leave him among these savages." We took him part of the way, but the 
poor man was so very ill we could not take him any further. So I went to a woman, who, 
though a barbarian, was distinguished for her kindness, and I said to her : "We have with 
us a soldier with a broken leg and we must leave him, and will you take care of him," and 
I offered her ten times as much money as you would have supposed, hoping by excess of 
pay to secure for him great kindness. And what do you suppose she said to me ? She 
said : " No ! I will not take care of this sick soldier for the money you offer me. I have 
no need of the money. My father and mother have a comfortable tent, and I have a good 
tent, and why should I take the money. I will not take care of the soldier for the money, 
but if you will leave him here I will take care of him for the sakp. of the love of God.'''' ' " 
Mr. Gladstone said to me : " Do you not think that was religion ?" I said : " Yes ! that is 
good enough religion for me." 

Speaking of his new crusade for home rule, he said : " It seems the dispensation 
of God that I should be in this battle. It is not to my taste. I never had any option 
in the matter. I dislike contest, but I could not decline this controversy without dis- 
grace. When Ireland showed herself ready to adopt a righteous constitution, and do 
her full duty, I hesitated not an hour." When I rallied him on his speech two nights 
before at Chester, when he said the increase of the American Navy might make im- 
perative the increase of the British Navy, he said: "Oh, Americans like to hear the 
plain truth. The fact is that the tie between these two nations will become closer 
and closer." 

When I protested that on that cold day he had not wrapped himself in thicker 
apparel, he having nothing on him more than would be proper for a warm room, 
except a thin cape reaching to the elbows, he replied, " I need nothing more on me. 
I must keep my legs free." 

By this time we had reached the back door of his castle, and we entered, and 
he called his sei-vant to bring me tea and a bountiful supply for an appetite 
sharpened by that which had been not so much a walk as a run through Ha- 
warden. After refreshment he took me into his librarj^ containing such wealth of 
books as few individuals have ever known, and arranged by a method invented by 
himself. He showed me literary works which were presented him by Americans, 
and a portfolio of pictures presented by an American. He said, "Outside of America 
there is no one who is bound to love it more than I do. You see I cannot move 
outside of the evidences of her kindness." He then gave me some books and 
pamphlets by himself, and his translation of "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," into the 
Greek language. Mrs. Gladstone had been obliged to leave the house for some 
engagement before our return, but she left her regards and through her servant 
asked me to leave m}' autograph. Mr. Gladstone rummaged the rooms for a pho- 
tograph of her, and, not finding it, took me to a room containing a beautiful piece 
of sculpture representing Mrs. Gladstone at about twenty-two years of age. He said, 
"She is only two years younger than I, but in complete health and vigor." 

The time for my departure arrived. I must the next day take steamer for America. 
When I expressed to Mr. Gladstone the wish that he might come to America and 
told him the reception he would receive from all classes, he said, "I am too old now." 
To my remark, " You have often crossed the English Channel, and that is worse than 
the Atlantic," he replied, '' Oh, I am not afraid of the ocean." He followed me to the 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



449 



door bareheaded, his white hair flowing in the wind, I opposing his coming lest he 
take cold. Standing there on the doorstep he said, in substance, " Tell your country 
of my high appreciation of your great nation, and that I am wishing for it every 
increasing prosperity, and that I watch every turn in its history with a heart of 
warmest admiration;" his expressions of kindness not closing until we were compelled 
to say " Good-bye." 

So we parted. Whatever may be the difference of opinion with regard to Mr. 
Gladstone's politics, all the world must admit him to be not only one of the most 
wonderful men of this century, but of all time. 



JOHN RUSKIN. 

The sentence contains more happiness than I can easily make people understand when 
I say that I saw John Ruskin. I wanted to see him more than any other man, crowned or 
uncrowned. He has done more for ele- 
vated literature than any man of the 
century. When I was in England at 
other times Mr. Ruskin was always ab- 
sent or sick, but this time I found him. 
I was visiting the L,ake districts of Eng- 
land, the enchanted ground trodden by 
Wordsworth and Walter Scott and Cole- 
ridge and Mrs. Hemans. 

I visited the house where Christopher 
North (Professor Wilson) spent his sum- 
mers. I went into the room where De 
Quincy ate opium and wrote for all the 
world. I talked with people who remem- 
bered Wordsworth and saw Christopher 
North row across Windemere and take 
herculean exercise among the hills. But 
one afternoon I took a ride that will be 
forever memorable. I said, " Drive out 
to Mr. Ruskin's place," which was some 
eight miles away. The landlord from 
whom I got the conveyance said, " You 
will not be able to see Mr. Ruskin. No 
one sees him or has seen him for years." 
Well, I have a way of keeping on when I 
start. After an hour and a half of a 
delightful ride, we entered the gates of 
Mr. Ruskin's home. The door of the J°«^ ^"''''^' *" ' ^^^^ =™- 

vine-covered, picturesque house was open and I stood in the hallway. Handing my card 
to a servant I said I wished to see Mr. Ruskin. The reply was, " Mr. Ruskin is not in, 
and he never sees any one." Disappointed, I turned back, took the carriage and went down 
the road. I said to the driver, " Do you know Mr. Ruskin when you see him ?" " Yes," 
29 




450 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

said he, " but I have not seen him for years." We rode on a few moments when the 
driver cried out to me, " There he comes now." In a minute we had arrived to where 
Mr. Ruskin was walking toward us. I alighted and he greeted me with a quiet manner 
and a genial smile. He looked like a great man worn out. Beard full and tangled. Soft 
hat drawn down over his forehead. Signs of physical weakness with determination not 
to show it. His valet walked beside him ready to help or direct his steps. He deprecated 
any remarks appreciatory of his wondrous services. He had the appearance of one whose 
work is completely done and is waiting for the time to start homeward. He is in appear- 
ance more like myself than any person I ever saw, and if I should live to his age the like- 
ness will be complete. I could easily understand how the first time I saw Dr. John Brown, 
the Edinboro assayist, he greeted me with the exclamation, " There comes my friend John 
Ruskin." 

Recent reports of Mr. Ruskin's physical decadence have probably been written by 
people who have not seen him, and have guessed the worst. But I do not think he will 
ever write another paragraph, or receive another call, until there comes to him the call of 
world-transferrence. He is not so old by ten years as some eminent Englishmen who are 
still inactive life, their tongue and pen as powerful in the eighties as in the forties. Yet 
he has written a whole library and endured his full share of misrepresentation. But he is 
through, magnificently through. He will continue to saunter along the English lanes very 
slowly, his valet by his side, for a year or two and then will fold his hands for the last sleep. 
Then the whole world will wake up to speak words of gratitude and praise which it denied 
him all through the years in which he was laboriously writing " Modern Painters," " The 
Seven Lamps of Architecture," " The Stones of Venice," and " The Ethics of the Dust." 
We cannot imagine what the world's literature would have been if Thomas Carlyle and 
John Ruskin had never entered it. The day or night a man intelligently meets Mr. 
Ruskin's works starts a new era in his history. The selections from his writings which I 
picked up in Wynkoop's store, Syracuse, N. Y., in the early years of my ministry I shall 
never forget. I read that book under the trees, the best place to read it. He was the first 
ccimpetent interpreter of the language of leaves, of clouds, of rivers, of lakes, of seas. He 
did for the hitherto i;ntranslated hieroglyphics of the natural world what Champollion did 
for Egyptian hieroglyphics. Blessed the day when I read the first chapter of John Ruskin's 
books ! Blessed the beautiful day when he took my hand and put upon me his benediction ! 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

SCOTLAND. 

^""^J EVEN o'clock in the inorning, at a window looking out upon the River Tay, 
>^^^^^ which is the Rhine of Scotland. When the Romans, many centuries ago, 

W "^ first caught sight of it they exclaimed : " £cce Tiber ! " Within sight of 
J^*""^ scenery which Walter Scott made immortal in his " Fair Maid of Perth."' 
The heather running up the hills to join the morning cloud of the same color, so that you 
can hardly tell which is heather, and which is cloud, beauty terrestrial and celestial, 
intertwined, interlocked, interspun, intermarried. The incense of a gentleman's garden 
burning toward heaven in the fires of the fresh risen sun. Ivy on the old walls ; rockeries 
dashed with waterfall, and fringed with ferns ; hawthorn hedges which halt the eye only 
long enough to admire before it leaps over. At the end of each path a stately yew, trimmed 
up to the point like a spear, standing sentinel. The kennels under the wall j^awning with 
terriers and fox-hounds. 

• " Two dogs of black St. Hubert's breed, 

Unmatched for courage, breath and speed. ' ' 

The glades, the farmsteads, the copses, the soft plush of the grass, which has reveled 
in two months of uninlerrupted moisture. Seated in an arm-chair that an ancient king 
might in vain have wished for, writing on a table that fairly writhes with serpents and 
dragons and gorgons done in mahogany. What a time and place to take pen and paper for 
communication with my American readers ! 

Before I forget it I must tell you how I baptized a Scotch baby down in the centre of 
England. It was about ten o'clock at night, at the close of a service, and in the private 
parlor of a hotel, that a rap was heard at the door. Word came in that a young man was 
there desiring me to officiate at a baptism. We thought that there must be some mistake 
about it, and so delayed making our appearance. 

About five minutes before the starting of the rail train we came to the door of the private 
parlor and confronted a young man in a high state of excitement. He said that he had 
come all the way from Scotland to have us baptize his child. We told him the thing was 
impossible for the train would go in five minutes. But this only made the man more 
intense. So we said, " Where is the baby ? We have no time to wait." The young man 
rushed down stairs, and returned with the mother and child. As she unrolled the boy from 
her plaid there came to sight the prophecy of a genuine Roderick Dhu. We wanted an 
hour to baptize a boy like that. 

Scotch all over ! What cheek bones and what a fist. Give him plenty of porridge 
and the air of Loch Vennachar, and what a man he will make — Chief of Clan Alpine! I 
asked the mother what she was going to call him, and she said " Douglass ! " What a name ! 
Suggestive of victory, defeat, warrior blades, and gates of Stirling Castle ! 

" Ere Douglasses to ruin driven 
Were exiled from their native Heaven ! " 

But it was no time to indulge in Scottish reminiscences. If that infant Highlander 
was to be baptized by us it must be within the next sixty seconds. We had the father and 

(451) 



452 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



the mother, and the baby and the minister, but no water ! We hastily scanned all the vases 
and cups in the room. There was no liquid in all the place save the cocoa left over from 
our evening repast. That would not do. We have known people so stupid and dull and 
bilious all their lives you might imagine they had been baptized in cocoa. But we would 
have no part in such a ceremony. 

" Get some water in a second !" we demanded. From the next room the anxious father 




HOUSE OF JOHN KNOX, EDINBURGH. 

returned in a moment, bringing a glass of it, clear, bright water, fit to christen a Douglass, 
opaline as though just dipped by Rob Roy from L,och Katrine. " Douglass ! " we called 
him as the water flashed upon the lad's forehead quick and bright as the gleam of Fitz- 
James ' blade at Inverlochy. We had no time for making out a formal certificate, but only 
the words, " Baptism, July 2ist," the name of Douglass, and our own. As we darted for the 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



453 



cars, the young man submerged us with thanks, and put in our hands as a baptismal gift, 
the " Life of Robert McCheyne," the glorious Scotchman who preached himself to death 
at thirty years of age, but whose brave and godly words are still resounding clear as a 
pibroch among the Scotch hills. 

As we had but little time to pray at the baptism, we now ejaculate the wish that the 
subject unrolled that night 
from the smiling Scotch 
mother's plaid may have the 
courage of a John Knox, 
the romance of a Walter 
Scott, the naturalness of 
the Ettrick Shepherd, the 
self-sacrifice of a Hugh Mc- 
Kail, the physical strength 
of a Christopher North, and 
the goodness of a Robert 
McCheyne. In other words, 
may he be the quintessence 
of all great Scotchmen. 

There is something 
about the Scotch character, 
whether I meet it in New 
York, or London, or Perth, 
that thrills me through and 
through. Perhaps it may 
be because I have such a 
strong tide of Scotch blood 
in my own arteries. Next 
to my own beloved country 
give me Scotland for resi- 
dence and grave. The peo- 
ple are in such downright 
earnest. There is such a 
roar in their mirth, like a 
tempest in "The Trossacks." 
Take a Glasgow audience 
and a speaker must have 
his feet well planted on the 
platform or he will be over- 
mastered by the sympathy of 
the populace. They are not 
ashamed to cry, with their 
broad palms wiping away the tears, and they make no attempt at suppression of glee. 
They do not simper, or snicker, or chuckle. Throw a joke into a Scotchman's ear and 
it rolls down to the centre of his diaphragm and then spreads out both ways, toward 
foot and brow, until the emotion becomes volcanic, and from the longest hair on the crown 
of the head to the tip end of the nail on the big toe there is paroxysm of cachinnation. 




KNOX CHURCH, WHERE I PREACHED. 



454 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



No half and half about the Scotch character. What he hates, he hates ; what he 
likes, he likes. And he lets you know it right away. He goes in for L,ord Salisbury 
or William E. Gladstone, and is altogether Liberal or Tory. His politics decided, his 
religion decided ; get him right, and he is magnificently right ; get him wrong, and he is 
awfully wrong. A Scotchman seldom changes. By the time he has fairly landed on his 
feet in this world he has made up his mind, and he keeps it made up. If he dislikes a fiddle 
in church, you cannot smuggle it in under the name of a bass viol. We like persistence. 
Life is so short that a man cannot afford very often to change his mind. If the Israelites in 
the wilderness had had a few Scotch leaders, instead of wandering about for forty years, they 
would, in three weeks, have got to the promised land, or somewhere else just as decided. 




BAI,MORAI. CASTLE, SCOTTISH RESIDENCE OF QUEEN VICTORIA, EORTY-FOUR MILES FROM ABERDEEN. 

But national characteristics are gradually giving way. The Tweed is drying up. The 
Atlantic Ocean under steam pressure is becoming a Fulton Ferry. When I asked John 
Bright if he was ever coming to America, he said : " No ; America comes to me !" Besides 
that, American breadstuflFs and American meat must have its effect on European character. 
All careful observers know that what men eat mightily affects their character. The mis- 
sionary among the Indians, compelled to live on animal food, gets some of the nature of 
the aborigines, whether he will or not. The steamers coming to Glasgow bring great 
cargoes of American meat to Scotland. The meat of animals butchered in America is 
kept on steamers in a cool draught especially arranged for that purpose, and the meat 
market of Scotland is being revolutionized. The Scotchman eating American beef and 
American mutton and American venison becomes partially American. 



THE WORLD AvS SEEN TO-DAY. 



455 



Englishmen on platforms and in the newspapers deplore the coming in of so much 
American breadstuffs. Because of the failure of English crops for two or three years this 
is becoming more and more so. The Englishman eating American wheat and American 
rye and American corn must become in part Americanized. And here is an element of 
safety wdiich political economists would do dwell to recognize. The cereals and the meats 
of one nation becoming the food of other nations, it prophesies assimilation and brother- 
hood. It will be very difficult for American beef to fight American beef, and American 
mutton to fight American mutton, and American corn to fight American corn, and though 
it may be found on the opposite side of the Atlantic. The world is gradually sitting down at 
one table, and the bread will be made of Michigan wheat, and it will be cut with Shefiield 
knives. The rice will be 
brought from Carolina 
swamps, and cooked with 
Newcastle coal, and set on 
the table in Burslem pot- 
tery, while the air comes 
through the window uphol- 
stered with Nottingham 
lace. And Italy will pro- 
vide the raisins, and Brazil 
the nuts, and all nations 
add their part to the uni- 
versal festivity. What a 
time of accord when all the 
world breakfasts and dines 
and sups together. 

What is that neighing 
of horses, and bleating of 
sheep, and barking of dogs 
now coming to my ears? 
It is the Highland Show. 
The best animals of Scot- 
land are in convention a 
little distance away. Earls 
and marquises yesterday 
judged between them. Bet- 
ter keep your American 
cattle, horses, and sheep, and 
dogs at home, unless you want them cast into the shade. What a spectacle ! I suppose 
these are the kind of cattle and horses that made up the chief stock in Paradise before they 
had been abused of the wicked centuries. 

Examine those which have won distinction and a ribbon. Rear Admiral, Knicker- 
bocker, Prince Alfred and Harold, from Berwick-on-Tweed, among the shorthorns. Liddes- 
daleand Lord Walter among the Galloways ; The Monarch among the polled Angus cattle ; 
Morning Star, King Carthus and Scottish Chief among the Ayrshires. This is the poetry 
of beef; the "Iliad," the "Odyssey," the " Paradise Regained" of cattledom. 

■Pass on to the horses, and see Conqueror, and Luck's All, and Star of the West. 




THE QUEEN'S OWN CAMERON HIGHLANDERS. 



456 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



St. John saw in vision white horses, and bay horses, and black horses, and one might 
think that some of these in the Highland Show had broken out of the pasture-fields of 
heaven. One of these might well have stood for Job's photograph, " his neck clothed with 
thunder." What hunters and roadsters. 

Pass on to the sheep and see the wonderful specimens of Cheviots and Dinmonts, some 
of them so covered with wealthy fleece they can hardly see out, nature having " pulled the 
wool over their eyes." 

Pass on and stir up these fowls, and hear them crow and cackle and cluck. Turkey 
gobblers, with unbounded resources of strut, and ducks, of unlimited quack, and bantams, 
full of small fight, and Cochin-Chinas, and Brahmapootras, and Hamburgs, and Dorkings, 
suggesting the grand possibilities of the world's farmyard. 

And dogs ! I cannot stop to describe the bewitching beauty of the English and Gordon 

setters, and Dalmatians 
and retrievers, and 
pointers, and Scotch 
terriers, Skye and rat, 
and that beautiful joke 
of a dog — the English 
pug — ^which I can 
never see without 
bursting into laughter, 
and the collies, now 
becoming the fashion- 
able dogs of Europe, 
their heads patted by 
lords and ladies. How 
I would like to bring 
to America a whole 
kennel of them. St. 
John, in Revelations, 
put the dogs on the 
outside of the gate of 
heaven, saying: "With- 
out are doers 1 " If he 

ROSS CASTI.E, NEAR BAI,SARROCH, SCOTLAND, AND IRISH JAUNTING CAR. t*i. ti. ^ ^^-,.j . i^v. 

could have seen these 
of the Highland Show he would have invited them in. I think they might at least lie 
down under the king's table. 




We have sailed on the Rhine, the Thames, the Hudson, the St. John, but cut out of all the 
other days of our life for entrancement is this day when on the steamer Star o' Gowrie, we sail 
the Tay. Somewhat may depend on our especial mood. We went on board the Scotch 
river at Dundee. We had passed the night and previous day in one of those castles of 
beauty, a Scotch gentleman's home, a place that led us to ask the owner, as we stood in the 
doorway : 

" Do you suppose heaven will be much brighter than this ? " 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



457 



He said, " Yes ! for there will be no sorrow there." 

Then we thought can it be possible that sorrow ever looked out of these windows 
commanding such landscape, or ever set foot amid these royal flower-beds, or rode up this 
kingly carriage way ? We had visited the church of Robert Murray McCheyne, stood in 
his pulpit, hoping to get some of his inspiration, halted by his grave, and thought how 
from that comparatively small church (there are twenty larger churches in New York and 
Brooklyn) there has gone out a celestial spell upon all Christendom. I said to some of those 
who knew him well : 

" Was he really as good as the books say he was ? " 

The unanimous answer was, " Yes, yes." His was goodness set to music, and twined 
into rhythm. 

The goodness of some people is rough and spiked, and we wish they were less good 
and more genial. But McCheyne grew pleasant in proportion as he grew holy. And there 
are his old church 
and his unpreten- 
tious grave a charm 
for the centuries. 

We had also 
passed under tlhe 
gate where Wishart 
stood and preached 
to the people out- 
side the wall during 
the plague, and from 
the text, " He sent 
his word and healed 
them;" an assassin 
with dagger drawn 
waiting to stab him 
when he came down, 
the murderous in- 
tention defeated by 
Wishart's putting 

his hand on his shoulder affectionately ; and when the excited populace rushed on to 
destroy the assassin, were hindered by Wishart's defence of the desperado, as the clergyman 
said, " He who slays this man will first have to slay me." We have been at the table with 
and heard the post-prandial talk of Dundee's clergymen, bankers, and literati. We have 
been in the parlors with the beautiful women of Scotland — the high color of the cheek, 
the purity of their complexion, the elegance of their manners, the brillianc}- of their repar- 
tee, and the religious fervor of their conversation making up an attractiveness peculiar 
to their nationality. There are no brighter homes on earth than in Scotland. 

In the mood which all these scenes had induced we stepped on board the Star o' Gowrie 
for a sail on the Tay. Whether we did not pay it sufficient deference by tipping our hat 
to it as we started, or what was the reason, we will not guess : but the wind lifted our hat 
for us, and away it went into the Tay, never to be recovered, and would have left us in an 
awkward plight, for people only laugh at a man who has lost his hat, but we happened to 
have a surplus, and so were immediately refitted. 




HOLYROOD CASTLE, SCOTLAND. 



458 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



We passed under the Tay Bridge, the longest bridge across a tidal river in the world ; 
but the whole heaven that day was an arch bridge, buttressed with broken storm cloud, 
mighty enough to let all the armies of Heaven cross over, and indeed it seemed as if 
they were crossing — plumes of cloud, and wheels of cloud, and horses of cloud, troop after 
troop, battalion after battalion. 

There are some days when the heavens seem to turn out on parade. But there is no 
danger that this suspension-bridge from horizon to horizon will break, for if here and there 
a crj'stal should shiver under celestial foot, the cavalcades are winged, and the fracture of 
sapphire would be repaired by one stroke of the trowel of sunshine. 

The banks of the Tay seem clad with a supernatural richness. The verdure and 




ROBERT BURNS' COTTAGE, NEAR AYR, SCOTI^AND. 

foliage seem to have dripped off heights celestial. The hills on either side run down to 
pay obeisance to the queenly river, and then run up to the sky to report they have done so. 
Abbeys and castles stand on either shore, telling of the devotions and the courage of dead 
centuries. If you had time to stop and mount one of the casements of Elcho Castle, that 
old ruin on the south bank of the Tay, and should call the roll of the heroes departed, Bruce 
and Wallace, and Thomas de Longueville, calling loud enough, you might in the echoes 
hear the neighing of the war chargers, the clash of claymores, and the battle cry of Clan 
Chattan responded to by Clan Inhele, and all the other clans. 

Bold and true 
In bonnet blue." 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



459 



On this side the Tay is the ruin of Lindore's Abbey, with its great stone coffins, 
about the contents of which generations have been surmising-, and about which Dean Stanley 
remarked one day to a friend — that, considering the size of the coffins, the people occupying 
them must have been broad churchmen. 

And yonder is the ruin of Balnabreich Castle. A few straggling stones only tell the 




nOTTNE CASTI.E AND CALLOWS TREE. 
Doune Castle, Scotland, is the most majestic feiulal remains in Great IJrilain, 500 ye 



place which once was the retreat of the mighty. Near by it the battlefield of Black 
Ironside, and the stream where Wallace and his thirsty men found refreshment. 

" Drank first himself, and said in sober mood, 
The wine of France I ne'er thought half so good.' " 

But say some: " We have no interest in tlicsc old castles and abbeys." That disjilays 
your own ignorance. We notice that people who have no interest in such places arc 
unacquainted with hi.story, and no wonder to them Kenilworth Castle is of less interest 
than a fallen down smoke-house. Alas for those who fet! no thrill amid these scenes of 



460 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



decayed architecture! Such ruins are the places where the past ages come and sit beside 
us, show us their leathern doublet, bend their keen-tempered blade, sing us the old songs, 
and halting the centuries in their solemn march, bid them turn round and for a little while 
march the other way. 

We are apt to think, while looking upon these old ruins of barbaric times, how much 
the world has advanced. Yes, but not in all things for the better. Is our century which 
drops a bombshell able to kill twenty men any better than the century with falchion that 
killed, one man? Are Waterloo and Sedan with their tens of thousands of slain better than 
the North Inch at Perth, near which we are now landing in this Scotch afternoon, the North 
Inch where thirty men of one clan and thirty men of another clan, picked from their nation 
as champions, fought until all were slain, or wounded, or dishonored, or drov/ned in the Tay ? 




MELROSE ABBEY, SCOTLAND, EOTJNDED BY DAVID I., A.D. II36. 

Is murder on an immense scale better than murder on a small scale ? Was Napoleon 
despoiling nations so much better than Robin Hood despoiling a wayfarer ? Is Sin Brobdig- 
nagian more admirable than Sin Lilliputian ? Is Springfield Armory better in God's sight 
than Balnabreich Castle } But before we get the questions answered our steamer touches 
the wharf, and we disembark with a farewell to the beautiful Tay, which seems to answei, 

as we part : 

"Men maj' come and men may go, 
But I go on forever, 
I go on forever, 
I go on forever." 



We Republicans and Democrats in America have been brought up on the theory that 
the aristocracy of England and Scotland live a fictitious and stilted life in aim, and 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



461 



meaningless. My own ideas on the subject have been reconstructed by that which I have 
seen. There are in the world three kinds of aristocracy — the aristocracy of wealth, the aris- 
tocracy of birth, the aristocracy of goodness. The last will yet come to the ascendency, and 
men will be judged, not according to the number of dollars they have gathered, nor the fame 
of their ancestors. But if we must choose between the aristocracy of wealth and the aris- 
tocracy of birth, we choose the latter. We find that those who have been born to high posi- 
tion wear their honors with more ease and less ostentation than those who come suddenly 
upon distinguished place. 

The man with a stable of fifty horses and a kennel of fifty hounds may be as humble 
as the man who goes afoot and has no dog to follow him. So far as we have seen the 
homes and habits of the aristocracy of England, we find them plain in their manners, 
highly cultured as to their minds, and many of them intensely Christian in their feelings. 
There is more strut and pre- 
tension of manner in many an 
American constable, or alder- 
man, or legislator, than you 
will find in the halls and 
castles of the lords and earls 
of England. One great rea- 
son for this is that a man born 
to great position in Great 
Britain is not afraid of losing 
it. He got it from his father, 
and his father from his grand- 
father, and after the present 
occupant is done with his 
estate, his child will get it 
and then his grandchild and 
so on perpetually. It is the 
man who has had distin- 
guished place only two or 
three years and may lose it to-morrow, who is especially anxious to impress you with 
his exaltation. His reign is so short he wants to make the most of it. 

Even the men who come up from the masses in England to political power are more 
like to keep it than in America, for the member of the House of Commons may represent 
any part of England that desires to compliment his services instead of being compelled to 
contest with twenty small men in his own district, as in America. It made no difference 
to John Bright whether Birmingham wanted to send him to Parliament or not. There 
were plenty of counties that did want to send him. Some of the most unpretentious men 
of England are the most highly honored. Gladstone is not afraid of losing his honors 
while with coat off he swings his axe against the forest trees at Hawarden, near 
Chester. 

In a picnic of working people assembled on his lawn one summer day, Mr. Gladstone, 
while making a little speech, said : 

"We are very proud of our trees and are therefore getting anxious as the beech has 
already shown symptoms of decay. We set great store by our trees." 

"Why, then," shouted one of his rough hearers, "do you cut them down as you do?" 




THE OLD CURIO.SIIY SHOP. 



462 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

" We cut down that we may improve. We remove rottenness that we may restore 
health by letting in air and light. As a good Liberal you ought to understand that." 

So Mr. Gladstone, though holding the strongest political pen in England, is easily 
accessible, and is not afraid of being contaminated by contact with inferiors. 

A citizen of Rochdale, in reply to my question about Mr. Bright, said : 

"We do not know Mr. Bright ! He is Jokji Bright." 

Indeed, from my delightful interview with that eloquent and magnetic Englishman I 
could understand this familiarity with his name. . His genial and transcendent nature looked 
at you through the blue eyes, and spoke from the fine head, white as the blossoms of the 
almond tree, and without any reserve putting himself into familiar conversation on all the 
great questions of the day, you easily saw how, while the masses shouted at his appearance 
on the platfonn, the Queen of England sent word that when he approached her he might, 
according to his Quaker habits and belief, keep his hat on. 

This unostentation, seen among those who have done their own climbing, is true also 
of those who are at the top without climbing at all. 

The Marquis of Townshend, who presided at our lecture at the Crystal Palace, has 
the simplicity of a child, and meeting him among other men you would not suspect either 
his wealth or his honors. 

The Earl of Shaftesbury was like a good old grandfather from whom it requires no art 
to evoke either a tear or a laugh. 

The family of Lord Cairns, the highest legal authority in England, was like any other 
Christian home which has high art and culture to adorn it. 

x\mong the pleasantest and most unaffected of people are duchesses and " right honor- 
able " ladies. The most completely gospelized man we met was the Earl of Kintore. 
Seated at his table he said : " Do not forget our journey next Sabbath night." 

It was useless to tell us not to forget that which we had so ardently anticipated. At 
six o'clock his lordship called at the Westminster Palace Hotel, not with carriage, for we 
were going where it was best for us to go afoot. With his servant to carry his coat and 
Bible and psalm-book we sauntered forth. We were out to see some of the evening and 
midnight charities of London. Eirst of all we went into the charity lodging-houses of 
London, the places where outcast men who would otherwise have to lodge on the banks of 
the Thames or under the arch bridges may come in and find gratuitous shelter. These 
men, as we went in, sat around in all stages of poverty and wretchedness. As soon as the 
earl entered they all knew him. With some he shook hands, which in some cases was a 
big undertaking. It is pleasant to shake hands with the clean, but a trial to shake hands 
with the untidy. Lord Kintore did not stop to see whether these men had attended to 
proper ablution. They were in sin and trouble, and needed help, and that was enough to 
invoke all his sympathies. He addressed them as "gentlemen " in a short religious address 
and promised them a treat "about Christmas," telling them how many pounds he would 
send ; and accommodating himself to their capacity, he said " it would be a regular blow 
out." 

He told me that he had no faith in trying to do their souls good unless he sympathized 
practically with their physical necessities. His address was earnest, helpful and looked 
toward two worlds — this and the next. In midsummer a large fire was burning in the grate. 
Turning to those forlorn wretches. Lord Kintore said : " That is a splendid fire. I don't 
believe they have a better fire than that in Buckingham Palace." 

From this charity lodging-house, which the inmates call the " House of Lords," we 



464 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



went to one of inferior quality, which the inmates call the " House of Commons."' 
There were different grades of squalor, different degrees of rags, different stages of 
malodor. 

From there we went to missions, and outdoor meetings, and benevolent rooms, where 
coffee and chocolate are crowding out ale and spirits. Ready with prayer and exhortation 
himself, his lordship expected everybody with him to be ready, and although he had 
promised to do the talking himself, he had a sudden and irresistible way of tumbling others 
into religious addresses ; so that, at the close of this Sunday, which we had set apart for 
entire quiet, we found we had made five addresses. 

But it was one of the most refreshing and instructive days of all our lives. As we 
parted that night on the streets of London, I felt I had been with one of the best men of 
the age. 

What a grand thing, when the men at the top are willing for Christ's sake to stoop to 

those at the bottom. 
May this sort of aris- 
tocracy become uni- 
versal and perpetual ! 
While the Duke 
of Beaufort is shoot- 
ing pheasants in the 
copse at Badminton, 
and is distinguished 
for South down 
sheep, and a cabinet 
set with gems that 
cost ^50,000, and an 
estate of incalculable 
value, most men will 
have more admira- 
tion for such dukes 
and lords and noble- 
men as are celebrated 
for what they are 
doing for the better- 
ment of the world's 
condition. lyord 

Congleton, missionary' to Bagdad before he got his title, but afterward making himself felt 
as Oriental scholar and religious teacher ; Lord Cavan, the stirring evangelist ; Lord Radstock, 
not ashamed to carry the gospel to the Russian nobility, and Lord Kiutore who was alwaj's 
ready to take platform or pulpit, when there was anything good to be done, or walk through 
the haunts of destitution and crime, for temporal and spiritual rescue. 

So in England there are whole generations on the right side. While for pretension 
and hereditary sham we wish a speedy overthrow, we pray God for the welfare and 
continuance of a self-sacrificing, intelligent, virtuous and Christian aristocracy. 




WESTMINSTER ABBEY, LONDON. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



465 



We have been in the land of unpronounceable names, and for the first time in our 
life seen a Welsh audience. They are the most genial and hearty of all people. When 
they laugh they laugh, when they cry they cry, and when they cheer they cheer, and there 
is no half-way work about it. 

Their language is said to be only second in sweetness and rhythm, but the English 
tongue seems to be crowding it out. The melody of the Welsh vernacular we must, how- 
ever, take on faith. We give our readers an opportunity of practicing the music of the 
names of some of the Welsh valleys, such as Llangollen, Maentwrog and Ystwyth ; of 
some of the Welsh medicinal 1 ■ 1 springs, such as Llanwrtyd, Trefriw and 



Llandrindod ; of some of the 
cerwyn and Aanfawddwy. If 
ciation of these names, you will 
aries, entitled : " Dymchweliad 
cannot succeed you will, perhaps 
language which the Welsh 



Welsh mountains, such as Pencwm- 
you are at all puzzled with the pronun- 
please get one of the Welsh diction- 
alloruchel y Pab." And if then }-ou 
stop, and be as ignorant as I am of 
say has in it capacities for tenderness, 
and nice shades of meaning, and pathos, 
and thunderings of power beside which 




WE.STMINSTER BRIDGE AND CLOCK TOWER, LONDON. 



our English is insipid. Within a comparatively few years the English Government has 
found Wales to be her most valuable treasure house. She has the largest coal fields in 
Europe, and in vertical thickness the strata surpass the world. Her iron, and lead, and 
copper, and zinc, and silver, and gold, must yet command the attention of all nations. Her 
minerals, unlike those of most countries, are within fifteen or twenty miles of the sea, and 
easily transported. 

Considering the fact that the language is spoken by less than a million of people, the 
literature of the Welsh is incomparable for extent. The first book was published in 1531, 
and consisted of twenty-one leaves. Four years after, anotlier book. Eleven years after, 
another book which they strangely called "The Bible," containing the alphabet, an almanac, 
the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and something about their 
national games. 

An astounding "Bible" that was. Eighteen )ears after this another book appeared. 
The slow advancement was because the prominent men of the English nation wanted tlie 
Welsh language to die out, on the supposition that these people would be more lo)al to 
30 



466 THE EARTH GIRDLED.. 

the throne if they all spoke the English language. But, afterward, the printing press of 
Wales got into full swing, and now books and periodicals by the hundreds of thousands of 
copies are printed and circulated in the Welsh language. But, excepting a few ballads of an 
immoral nature, corrupt literature dies as soon as it touches this region. 

Many bad English novels that blight other countries cannot live a month in the pure 
atmosphere of these mountains. The fact is, that the Welsh are an intensely religious 
people, and one of their foremost men declares that in all their literature there is not one 
book atheistic or infidel. 

The grandest pulpit eloquence of the centuries has sounded through these gorges. I 
asked an intelligent Welsh lady if there were any people living who remembered the great 
Welsh divine. Christian Evans. She replied : " Yes ! I remember him — that is, I remem- 
ber the excitement. I was a child in church, and sat in a pew, and could not see him for 
the crowd, but the scene made on me an indelible impression." 

For consecrated fire the Welsh preachers are the most effective in the world. Taken 
all in all, there are no people in Europe that more favorably impress me than the Welsh. 
The namb)' pamby traveler, afraid of getting his shoes tarnished, and who loves to shake 
hands with the tips of the fingers, and desires conversation in a whisper, would be disgusted 
with Wales. But they who have nothing of the fastidious in their temperaments, and who 
admire strength of voice, strength of arm, strength of purpose, and strengtli of character, 
will find among the Welsh illimitable entertainment. 

On m)' wa}' from Wales I met with one of the most exciting scenes I ever witnessed. 
We were in a rail train going at a terrific velocity. There are two or three locomotives in 
England celebrated for speed ; one they call the Flying Dutchman, another they call the 
Yorkshire Devil. We were flying ahead at about sixty miles the hour. There were five of 
us, four gentlemen and a lady, in an English car, which is a different thing, as most people 
know, from an American car, the former holding comfortably only about eight persons, four 
of them may occupy one seat, facing four on the other seat. We halted at the " station," 
as they say in England, or at the " depot," as we say in America. A gentleman came 
to the door and stood a moment, as if not knowing whether to come in or stay out. The 
conductor compelling him to decide immediately, he got in. He was finely gloved, and 
every way well dressed. 

Seated, he took out his knife and began the attempt of splitting a sheet of paper edge- 
wise, and at this sat intensely engaged for perhaps an hour. The suspicion of all in the 
car was aroused in regard to him, when suddenly he arose, and looked around at his fellow- 
passengers, and the fact was revealed by his eye and manner that he was a maniac. The 
lady in the car (she was traveling unaccompanied) became frenzied with fright, and rushed 
to the door as if about to jump out. Planting my foot against the door, I made this death- 
leap impossible. A look of horror was on all the faces, and the question with each was, 
" What will the madman do next? " 

A madman unarmed is alarming, but a madman with an open knife is terrific. In the 
demoniac strength that comes to such a one he might make sad havoc in that flying rail 
train, or he might spring out of the door as once or twice he attempted. It was a question 
between retaining the foaming fury in our company, or letting him dash his life out on the 
rocks. 

So it might be a question between his life and the life of one or more in the train. 
Our own safety said, "Det him go!" Our humanity said, "Keep him back from instant 
death ! " and humanity triumphed. The bell-rope reaching to the locomotive in the English 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



467 



Tail trains is on the outside of the car, and near the roof, and difhcnlt to reach. I gave it 
two or three stout pulls, but there was no slackening of speed. Another passenger repeated 
the attempt without getting any recognition. We might as well have tried to stop a 
whirlwind by pulling a boy's kite-string. 

When an English engineer starts his train he stops for nothing short of a collision, and 
the bell-rope along the 
outside edges of the car 
is only to make passen- 
gers feel comfortable 
at the idea that they 
can stop the train if 
they want to, and as it 
is not once in a thous- 
and times any one is 
willing to risk his arm 
and reach out of the 
window long enough 
to work the rope, the 
delusion is seldom 
broken. To rid our- 
selves of our ghostly 
associate seemed im- 
possible. 

Then there came 
a struggle as to who 
should have the supre- 
macy of that car, right 
reason or dementia. 
The demoniac moved 
around the car as 
though it belonged to 
him, and all the rest of 
us were intruders. Then 
he dropped in convul- 
sions across the lap of 
one of the passengers. 

At this moment, 
when we thought the 
horror had climacter- 
ated, the tragedy was 
intensified. We plunged 
into the midnight dark- 
ness of one of those long tunnels for which English railway travel is celebrated. The 
minutes seemed hours. Can you imagine a worse position than to be fastened in a rail- 
way carriage eight feet by six, in a timnel of complete darkness, with a maniac ? May 
the occurrence never be repeated ! We knew not what moment he might dash upon us 
or in what way. 




THE C0RON.\TI0N CHAIR, WESTMINSTER ABBF.V. 



468 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

We waited for the light, and waited while the hair lifted upon the scalp, and the blood 
ran cold. When at last the light looked in through the windows, we found the afflicted man 
lying almost helpless. When the train halted he was carried out, and we changed carriages, 
for we did not want to be in the place where such a revolting scene had been enacted. 

Thank God for healthful possession of the mental faculties. For that great blessing how 
little appreciation we have. From cradle to grave we move on under this light, not realiz- 
ing how easy it would be to have it snuffed out. 

God pity the insane. For all who have been wrecked on that barren coast, let our 
deepest sympathies be awakened. Nothing more powerfully stirred the heart of the "Man of 
sorrows " than the demoniac of Gadara, and what relief when the devil came out of him and 
the desperate patient, who had cut himself among the tombs, sat clothed and in his right 
mind. 

Until that encounter in the rail train we were in doubt as to whether we preferred 
English or American railroading, as each has its advantages. But since then we cast our 
vote in favor of American travel. We cannot, excepting in two or three cases, equal the 
English in speed. Their tracks are more solidly built, and hence greater velocity is possible 
without peril. But the arrangements for " baggage " as we sa)^, or " luggage " as they say, 
is far inferior. No getting of a trunk checked for five hundred or a thousand miles without 
again having to look at it. Nothing to show for your baggage, and only a label put on the 
lid announcing its destination ; you are almost sure to lose it unless at every change of cars 
you go out and supervise the transportation. Beside that it is impossible to stop the train , 
however great the necessity. A prolonged scene like that which I have just now sketched in 
an American railway would have been an impossibility. What though occasionally a weak 
man may impose on the convenient bell-rope and stop the train without sufficient cause, 
there ought to be a certain and immediate way of halting a train in case of such a wild, 
appalling and tremendous exigency. 



It is well for every one crossing the ocean to know beforehand the difference between 
the use of certain words in England and America. The American says " depot," the 
Englishman says " station." The American says " ticket office," the Englishman says 
" booking office." The American says " baggage," the Englishman says " luggage." The 
American says " I guess," the Englishman says " I fancy." The American says " crackers," 
the Englishman says "biscuit." The American says "checkers," the Englishman says 
"draughts." The American says " yeast," the Englishman says " barm." The American 
calls the close of the meal " dessert," the Englishman calls it " sweets." The American 
says "sexton," the Englishman says "doorkeeper." The American uses the word "clever" 
to describe geniality and kindness, the Englishman uses the word " clever " to describe 
sharpness and talent. There are many more differences, but as education advances and 
intercommunication between England and America becomes still more frequent, there will 
be onl}^ one tongue, and all words will mean the same on this and the other side of the 
Atlantic. 

I have at different times seen much of the English watering places. They are in full 
tide in September, that month in this respect corresponding with our August. Brighton is 
like Long Branch. Weymouth is like Cape May. Scarborough is like Saratoga. Isle of 
Wight is like heaven. 

Brighton being within an hour and a half of lyondon, the great masses pour out to its 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



469 



beach, and take a dip in the sea. But Scarborough is the place where the high prices shut 
out those of slender purse. It combines more of natural and artificial beauty than any 
place I ever saw. It is built on terraces. Its gardens rise in galleries. Two great arms of 
land reach out into the sea, and hundreds of gay sailing craft float in. A castle seven 
hundred years old straggles its ruins out to the very precipice. 

The air is tonic and the spectacle bewitching. Lords, and ladies, and gentry come here 
for a few weeks. The place is cool in summer, and warm in winter. In December the 
thermometer hovers about the fifties, and the people breakfast with open windows, while 
■others are skating at London. 

Of all the summer watering-places we have ever seen, in some respects Scarborough is the 
most brilliant, and is appropriately called the " Queen of English Resorts." But the prices 



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THE BEACH AT BRIGHTON. 



are enormous and not many could meet them. Brighton is best known to American 
theologians as the scene of the late Frederick Robertson's ministry. We attended his little 
church, which would hold perhaps six or eight hundred people, but from whose pulpit he 
preached after death to thousands of clergymen in Europe and America, those strange, 
powerful, original and melancholy sermons. What a life of pain he lived, sleeping many of 
his nights on the floor with the back of his head on the bottom of a chair, because he 
could sleep no other way without torture, his wife a still worse torment. 

Some of the English clergy have had wives celebrated in the wrong direction, but 
more of them have homes decorated and memorable with all conjugal affabilities. In the 
evening of the Sabbath, we worshiped in Robertson's church. We went into " the extra- 
mural cemetery " to see his grave. Though dead many years, his tomb bears all the mark 
of fresh affection. On all sides vines and flowers in highest culture. Two bronze medall- 
ions, one by his congregation, the other by the working people who almost idolized him. 
On the one medallion his church have inscribed, " Honored as a minister, beloved as a man, 



47° 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 




he awakened the holi- 
est feelings in poor and 
rich, in ignorant and 
learned ; therefore is 
he lamented as their 
guide and comforter, 
by many who, in the 
bond of brotherhood 
and in grateful remem- 
brance have erected this 
monument." On the 
other medallion the 
working people, whose 
practical friend he 
proved himself to be, 
preferred the inscrip- 
tion, "To the Reverend 
F. Robertson, M. A. In 
grateful remembrance 
of his sympathy and in 
deep sorrow for their 
loss, the members of 
the Mechanics' Institu- 
tion and the working- 
men of Brighton have 
placed this medallion 
on their benefactor's 
tomb." 

How independent 
of time and death an 
earnest man lives on. 
That is a poor life 
which breaks down at 
the cemetery. Many 
of these illustrious 
English preachers had 
insignificant looking 
churches. We went at 
Bristol to see Robert 
Hall's chapel. The 
present sexton remem- 
bered the great Baptist 
orator and preacher. 
The church in Robert 
Hall's day would not 
hold more than six hun- 
dred auditors, but there 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



471 



he preached discourses that have rung round the world and will ring through the ages. 
The size of a man's shop is not of so much importance as the style of work he turns 
out. Ole Bull could play the " Hallelujah Chorus " on a corn-stalk fiddle. Blessed are all 
they who do their best, whether in sphere resounding or insignificance. 

But the Isle of Wight, as already hinted, has a supernal beauty. If a poet, you will 
go there and see what was Tennyson's summer residence, and where he sauntered among 
the copses with his inevitable pipe as celebrated as the cigar of an American general. If 
you are an invalid, you will go there to bless your lungs with the soft atmosphere of its 




I,ONDON BRIDGE. 

valleys. If you are fond of ro)-alty, you will either get into the Queen's castle at O-sborne, 
or see her equipage on its daily " outing." 

If you are a Christian, you will go to the village which Dean Richmond has made 
immortal. Stop at the inn called the Hare and Hounds, and visit the grave at the north- 
east of the church, reading on the tombstone : 



" Sacked to the Memory of 

ELIZABETH WALBRIDGE, 

The Dairyman's Daughter, 

who (lied May 30, iSor, 

Aged 31 Years. 

She being dead, yet speakelh." 



472 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

Or the tomb of the schoolmaster and church-clerk, whose epitaph I should think had been 
■written by some lad who had felt the switch of the pedagogue, and took post-tnortem 
vengeance : 

" In yonder sacred pile his voice was wont to sound, 
And now his body rests beneath the hallowed ground. 
He taught the peasant boy to read and use the pen ; 
His earthly toils are o'er — he's cried his last Amen .' " 

Or, if you are fond of antiquities, you will go to Carisbrook Castle and see the room 
•where Princess Elizabeth, her heart broken at the imprisonment and death of her father, 
Charles the First, was found dead with her head on the open Bible at the text — " Come 
unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Or, if fond of 
tragedy, you will stand on the bank at Sandown and look off upon the water where, a year 
or two ago, the Eurydice sank, with all on board, under a sudden squall. A gentleman 
described to me the scene and how the bodies looked as they were brought up the beach. 

Oh, how wonderful for all styles of interest is this Isle of Wight — the bays, the yachts, 
the hills, the mansions, the arbors, the bridges, the seventy-two thousand souls augmented 
by the temporary population from the sweltering cities ! Ventnor and Undercliff and 
Shanklinchine and Blackgarg ! 

The isle, twenty-three miles long by thirteen wide, is one great dream of beauty. 
What trees arch it ! What streams silver it . What flowers emboss it ! What memories 
haunt it ! 

" The sparkling streamlet, joyous, bright and free, 
Leaps through the rocky chine to kiss the sea, ' ' 

Memorable among my wanderings will be the day spent on the Isle of Wight. The 
long storm of weeks lifted that morning, and there were gardens above as well as gardens 
beneath, groined roof of cloud over tesselated pavements and field. Fleets sailing the sea ; 
fleets sailing the sky. Boats racing in the bay, and regattas of cloud on the sky. The 
scene seemed let down out of heaven on two crimson pulleys of sunrise and sunset. 

If you want to mingle with the jolly masses of England, let loose for a holiday, go to 
Brighton. If you want to see the highest fashion of the realm, and relieve the plethora of 
an apoplectic pocketbook, go to Scarborough. But if you want to dream of eternal woods, 
and eternal waters, and eternal sunshine, make your pillow somewhere on the blissful and 
enchanting Isle of Wight. 

Our hearts overflow with gratitude to God and the English people. I do not think any 
American ever had so good an opportunity of seeing this country as I have had. I have 
"been from one end of it to the other, and seen its vast population -by day and by night, at 
work and in assemblage. 

Among other places I have been to Nottingham, the city of lace ; Birmingham, the city 
of metals ; Manchester, the city of cotton manufactory ; Liverpool, the city of international 
communication ; Edinburgh, the city of universities ; Glasgow, the city of ship carpentry ; 
Newcastle-on-Tyne, the city of coals ; Sheffield, the city of sharp knives ; Bristol, the city 
of West India produce ; Luton, the city of straw hats ; Northampton, the city of leather ; 
Hull, the city of big hearts and large shipping ; York, the city of cathedral grandeur ; 
Hanley, the city of pottery ; Perth, the city of Walter Scottish memories ; Dundee, the city 
of Robert McCheyne ; Paisley, the city of shawls ; Aberdeen, the city of granite ; Brighton, 



I 




(473) 



474 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

the city of summer play ; Rochdale, the city of John Bright ; Chester, the city of antiqui- 
ties ; London, the city of everything grand, glorious, indescribable — stupendous L,ondon ! 
May she stand in peace and prosperity till the archangel's trumpet splits open the granite of 
Westminster Abbey, and lets up all her mighty dead from the kings of five centuries ago to 
Sir Rowland Hill, the author of penny postage. 

But now I am going to show 3'ou something you have never dreamed of 

A grave is being opened in England that overtops all other things in stirring interest. 
Not the grave of a prince or king, but the grave of a whole city, the buried city of Uvi- 
canium. Riding out from Shrewsbury or Wellington for five miles you see the soil getting 
black, and along on the banks of the Severn you find the site of an ancient city built by the 
Romans, a city seventeen hundred years old. For many centuries it has lain under ground 
save a fragment of wall. Fifteen hundred years ago England was covered with these 
Roman towns and cities. Being far from the seat of government at Rome, these distant 
people broke away from the home government and formed independent principalities, and 
these principalities finally became jealous and quarrelsome and destroyed each other. 

So this city of Uvicanium perished. Charcoal in the remains of the city show that it 
was destroyed by fire, and the skeletons found in the cellars, some crouching and some 
prostrate, show that the ruin was sudden and accompanied with horrible massacre. This 
biiried city is on the estate of the Duke of Cleveland, who is an old man and grouty and has 
no interest in the exhumation. The Queen and the Prince of Wales offer to contribute to 
the entire uncovering of this dead city, provided the title of the ground be put in a shape 
that will secure its permanent possession as a place of public interest. Although but a 
small part has been exhumed, enough has been exposed to make the place worthy of a visit 
by every traveler. Here is the blacksmith shop with a stone anvil where they made plows 
and battle-axes. Here is the bath-room with floor beautifully tessellated, showing that those 
citizens admired cleanliness and art. Here is the heating apparatus by which the whole house 
was Vv'armed seventeen hundred years ago. There is the masonry wonderful in the fact that 
the mortar has never since been equaled, for it is harder than the stone, in some places where 
the stone has crumbled the mortar standing firm. Capitals and bases and shafts show that 
the second century was not a whit behind the nineteenth in some things. Here is where 
the form of a female was found, and there the skull of an old man with one hundred and 
thirty-two pieces of coin near him, and a few heads of nails and some decomposed wood 
showing that the money was in a box. The old man, no doubt, at the time of the taking 
of the city, crawled in here to save his life and his treasure. The heads on the coins were 
those of Constantine, Valens, Julian, Theodore, and Tetricus. 

Here are the storeroom and some specimens of burnt wheat. The hoiises had no upper 
stories and no staircases. In places you can see where the stones have been worn by the 
feet of seventeen centuries ago. Here is a room which must have belonged to some 
mechanic, a worker in bone. Here are the skeletons of horses and oxen of sixteen hundred 
years past. We pick up and put in our pocket a few specimens of teeth that ached fourteen 
hundred years ago. Here is a receptacle in which the inhabitants used to sweep the rubbish 
of the household, hair pins, bone needles, nails, oyster shells and broken pottery. The hair 
pins were made of bone, and thicken in the middle so as not to slip out from the coil of 
hair which adorned the females. Out of these ruins have been taken steelyards, a comb 
for scraping the skin in the baths, artists' palettes, a horse shoe, and medicine stamps. It 
seems the inhabitants were troubled with weak eyes, and all the medicine stamps indicate 
treatment for that disorder. The name of one of the enterprising doctors of the city is thus 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



475 



preserved. Tiberius Claudius was the physiciau's name. But they are all gone, and Dr. 
Claudius has overtaken his jDatients. There are urns containing human ashes. There is 
the grave of a soldier by the name of Caius Mannius. Most of the skulls of the inhabitants 
are, eleven out of nineteen, deformed .skulls, and one might suppose that it had been a city of 
deformed people, but it has been found that the pressure of the ground and the action of 
certain acids in the vegetable mould changes the shape of the skull, and so the people of that 
age and that city may have been as well formed as the inhabitants of our modern 
cities. 

Place of interest untold ! For ages the ruins were untouched. The ancients believed 
that these ruins were devil-haunted, and no man had the bravery to touch the spot. The 




VICTORIA EMBAXKMENT GARDENS. 



following story about the place was told to William the Conqueror. Although the place was 
thoroughly given over to evil spirits, one Peverel armed himself with shield of gold and a 
cross of azure, and with fifteen knights and others went in and took lodging. The night 
came on full of thunder and lightning, and all fell flat on the ground in terror. But 
Peverel implored God and the Virgin Mary to defend him from the devil. Then the arch 
fiend approached, enough fire and brimstone pouring from his mouth to light up the whole 
region. Peverel signed himself with the sign of the cross, and attacked the champion of 
hell. When Satan saw the cross in the hand of Peverel he trembled and got weak, and 
surrendered. Then Peverel fell upon him, and cried : "Tell me, you foul creature, who you 



476 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



are, and what you do in this town. I conjure )'ou in the name of God and of the Holy- 
Cross ! " So the devil was defeated and driven out of the dead city of Uvicanium. 

In this legend we may get intimation of how the fell spirit may be driven out of our 
living cities. He makes as fearful a fight now as when in thunder and lightning he dropped 
on Peverel and his brave knights in Uvicanium. But when Peverel lifted the cross his 
Satanic majesty got weak in the knees, and surrendered the city he had held so long. Not 
by sword or gun, or police club, or ecclesiastical anathema will the Satanic be expelled from 
New York, or Brooklyn, or London, but by the same weapon which Peverel carried. Lift 
it firmly, lift it high, lift it perpetually, the cross, the holy cross, the 
triumphant cross of the Christian religion. One flash of that will 
send consternation upon all the battalions diabolic. Thus may 




riCCADII,LY CIRCUS, LONDON. 



the boastful and proud cities of our time learn salutary lesson, from the twilight and mid- 
night legends of the dead city of the dead centuries. As soon as you arrive in England 
for sight-seeing, make inquiry for the best way of getting to Uvicanium. 



We pass over to Ireland, the country that grew Oliver Goldsmith, Henry Grattan,, 
Edmund Burke, and Daniel O'Connell. 

Some of the people here remember this last giant, and how, as an Italian writer says, 
that when O'Connell applauded, or cursed, or wept, or laughed, all Ireland applauded, or 
cursed, or wept, or laughed with him. His manner must have been overwhelmingly 
magnetic. A gentleman who heard him, described to me O'Connell's wonderful adaptation 
to the style of his audience. Appearing before a rough, out-door crowd one day, he began 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



477 



Tiis address b}^ saying: "How are you, boys? And how fare the women who 
own ye? " 

There are no Irishmen now as prominent as were the great men above mentioned. 
But if the time should come that demanded the service of such men, they would spring up 
from the peat beds, and out of the pavements of Limerick and Ballycastle, all armed with 
pen, or sword, or speech, for the emergency. The Lord does not sharpen His weapons till He 
wants to use them. They are all ready to be put upon the grindstone of battle or national 
controversy as soon as needed. No oppression, no Robert Emmet ; no struggle for inde- 
pendence, no Patrick Henry ; no Austrian outrage, no Louis Kossuth ; no American Revolu- 
tion, no Washington ; no Waterloo, no Wellington ; no Warren Hastings' career, no Edmund 
Burke's nine-day speech ; no Catholic emancipation, no fiery Daniel O'Connell. It is absurd 
to think that all the patriotism and courage of the world have died out with the heroes of 
the last generation. Tread on them, abuse them, maltreat them, drive them to the wall, and 
see if the Irish of 1895 will not fight as well as their illustrious ancestry. 

This island has for me a complete fascination. Most travelers writing of it give their 
chief time to describing its destitution, but they would tell a different story if they would 




QUEENSTOWN HARBOR, IRELAND. 

onl)- compare the Ireland of to-day with the Ireland of one hundred years ago. Ireland of 
to-day is a paradise compared with what it once displayed of drunkenness, dueling, gambling, 
and public violence. Not only the students of colleges went into bloody encounters, but 
professors. Hutchinson, the provost of a college, challenged and fought Doyle, a master in 
chancery, and the provost's son fought Lord Mountmorris. Dueling clubs were established 
— no one allowed to be a member until he had killed some one or tried to do so. At hotels 
weapons were kept for guests, in case they wanted to amuse themselves by killing each 
other. On one occasion while two were in duel, some one said, " For God's sake, part 
them ! " " No," said the other, " let them fight it out ; one will probably be killed and the 
other hanged for the murder, and society will get rid of two pests." 

A gentleman seated at a hotel table had a covered dish passed to him from a gentleman 
at another table. The cover lifted from the dish revealed smoking potatoes. After a while 
another dish was handed on ; the cover lifted, it revealed a loaded pistol, and the dinner 
hovir ended in manslaughter. 

All this fondness for dueling has passed, and in Ireland those who save life are more 
admired than those who take it. It is less than a century ago when ruffianism rode dominant. 



478 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



If there were a fair daughter in a houseliold, there was not a moment of domestic safety. 
Companies of bandits would attack the mansion and carry off the female prize, and if in 
accomplishing this it were necessary to kill the father and brother, the achievement was 
considered all the more brilliant, and the courts were slow to punish. While there were 
penalties threatened against such theft of household treasures, the law was evaded by 
putting the female on the horse of the bandit, and he rode behind so that it might be said 
she took him instead of his taking her. In this way the mansions and the castles of the 
princely were dishonored, and the men foremost in such outrages were greeted and 
admired as heroes, and walked about in pretentious uniform — top boots and red waist- 




VIEW OF LAKE KILLARNEV, IRELAND. 

coats, lined with lace. Such men now would find short pilgrimage to the prisons of 
Ireland. 

A century ago Ireland's literature was depraved to the last degree of indecency. The 
most popular song of the day was descriptive of a prison scene the night previous to public 
hanging, and was entitled " The Night Afore I^arry Was Stretched." Now each city of 
Ireland has its eminent authors. Many of the newspapers and magazines are administrative 
of elevated literary and moral taste. A Belfast or Dublin shorthand writer can take down 
a speech as rapidly as the stenographer of a London or New York paper. 

A century ago the amusements of the Irish people were cruel and barbarous. Bull- 
baiting was in high favor, the crowds looking on approvingl)' while the bull, fastened to a 
ring with a rope furnished by " the mayor of the ring," would be teased by the dogs, and 
they in turn bruised and tormented until sometimes a broken leg of the dog would have to be 
cut off so that, with the three remaining legs, it might, unimpeded, go on with the savagerj'. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



479 



The public executions were one of the popular amusements. The hangman would 
appear in grotesque apparel, a mask on his face and a huge hump on his back. One of 
these hangmen, Tom Galvin by name, was particularly celebrated for his hanging drollery. 
Nothing affronted him so much as the pardon of a criminal whom he expected to have the 
privilege of hanging. He would indignantly exclaim : " It's a hard thing to be taking the 
bread out of the mouth of an old man like me." Tom Galvin, the hangman, lived until 




BLARNEY CASTLE, SHOWING BLARNEY STuxi. 



recently, and when called upon by curious people would take the old rope with which he 
used to hang prisoners and put it slyly around the neck of the unsu.specting visitor, giving it 
a sudden pull that would, by way of joke, turn the visitor black in the face. 

All these styles of amusement have left Ireland, and crowded concert-halls, and costly 
picture galleries, and jaunting cars carrying the people out into the country for "an airing," 



48o 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



suggest that while Ireland may not be as good and happy as we wonld wish, it is far 
better and happier than in olden times. 

Ireland of a century ago had a character which illustrated the villainy of his time. 
" Tiger Roche," as he was called, was as bad as he was brave, and as mean as he was 
generous. Indeed he was a mixture of impossibilities. He attracted L,ord Chesterfield by 
his suavity, and frightened the mountaineers with his ferocity. He was spoiled by the 
caresses of the great, and instead of availing himself of the grand opportunities opened before 



""^^1 - ♦ . 



,-^,,^^||^4V~'v^ 







FINGAI,'S CAVE. 



him went to work to see how much infamy he could achieve. He crossed to Canada and joined 
the Indians in their warfare against the white population, was charged with stealing a rifle, 
and utterly disgraced. Then he gave his life to wreaking vengeance on the heads of his 
slanderers. He returned to Ireland where he was being restored to favor, when the slander 
of the stolen rifle reached the " Emerald Isle." But the thief who stole the rifle died, and 
in his dying moments confessed himself the criminal. Soon " Tiger Roche " becomes 
leader in the attempt to put down Dublin ruffianism. The law breaker becomes the law 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



481 



executor. Then he aspires to the hand of an heiress with a very large income, but before 
the day of marriage, because of his large expenditures of money, he is thrown into prison. 
He falls under the crushing misfortune, but rises again till he gets the nomination for 
Parliament, but he declines the nomination. He becomes fascinated with another heiress, 
gets her property and spends it till she and her mother have to retire in penury. He sailed 
for India, but on shipboard quarreled with the captain and so was turned in to mess with 
the common sailors. Getting on shore he watched for the captain with murderous intent, 
and the captain was found one morning dead with nine stabs in his left side. " Tiger Roche " 
fled to the Cape. Pursued there, he fled to Bombay. There he was caught, taken back to 
England and through some technicality of the law, acquitted. After all he died a natural 
death, although every day for three-fourths of his life was a robbery of the gallows. We 
can hardly imagine such a character in Ireland to-day. He was applauded and imitated. 




ETON COLLEGE, NEAR WINDSOR CASTLE. 



But law and order are as thorough to-day in Ireland as in any nation under the sun. The 
Presbyterians of the North and the Catholics of the South hate each other with a complete 
hatred, but the only war is a war of words. 

Grievous wrongs is Ireland suffering, but her wrongs will be righted. Better than she 
was in the past, she will be far better in the future. An Irishman has held the highest 
legal position in England. The voice of Ireland is potent in the councils of Great 
Britain. Her desolations will be furrowed into harvests of civilization and Christian 
prosperity. Peace upon Ireland ! May her wounds be healed, and her hunger fed, and 
her woes alleviated ! 



482 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

Leaving to other articles the stories of her mountains and cities as they now are, we 
conclude with the poet's apostrophe : 

"Great, glorious and free, 
First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea !" 



The Irish Channel treated us better than it treats most people. It lay down quietly 
till we got over it. In the calm, bright noon we landed. But your first step in Ireland 
reminds you of her sufferings. Within sight of where 5'ou land to take the cars for Belfast 
is the place where the CathoKcs were driven into the sea by tlieir persecutors, and where 
nine hundred monks were murdered by the Danes. 

No country has ever endured more sorrows than Ireland. But as you roll into Belfast 
you are cheered by a scene of prosperity. Belfast is the Chicago of Ireland. This city 
presented by James I. to Sir Arthur Chichester as an " insignificant village," now has two 
hundred and twelve thousand inhabitants, and all sails set for further progress. She makes 
enough linen to provide table coverings and surplices and undergarments for all the 
world. By an expenditure of one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars she has 
made her harbor easy of access to immense shipping. The thrift of the city, with the 
exception of occasional depressions, is imprecedented in Ireland. The people are kind, 
hospitable, enthusiastic, and moral. Her multitude of churches and religious institutions 
has had its evident eflFect on the population. Her monuments, banks, colleges, and bridges 
absorb the traveler's attention. 

' ' Spanning the Lagan now we have in view 
The great Long Bridge with arches twenty-two." 

Belfast has an array of very talented preachers. Her pulpit is second to no city under 
the sun. The churches are large and thronged. Her literary institutions have the ablest 
professorships, and the longest roll of students. If I wanted to live in Ireland and had my 
choice, I would live in Belfast. 

Thence you will run up to Ivondonderry — a walled city, historical down to its last brick. 
You feel, as you enter the city, that you have passed out of this century into the seventeenth 
century, and you hear the guns of siege thundering against the walls. For one hundred 
and five days the assault lasted, till cats and dogs were attractive food to the starving 
inhabitants. Walker, the minister of the place, proved himself a patriot, and harangued 
the people to courage and endurance. A high monument has been raised to perpetuate his 
memory. Two thousand three hundred people died from the siege. So that the glory of 
the city is the glor)^ .of its majestic and Christian suffering. Ay ! ay ! it is always so. 
Nothing is won by man, or church, or community, or nation, but through fire. 

In the outskirts of this city was the famous agricultural school, and on arriving I 
immediately asked for Templemoyle. Thackeray describes it as the most wonderful school 
in all the world. He liked it better than Eton. He said, after writing " Templemoyle," 
forty-seven years ago : " There are at this present writing five hundred boys at Eton, 
kicked and licked, and bullied by another hundred, scrubbing shoes, running errands and 
making false concords, and still calling it education ! " Then he describes how superior 
this agricultural school was to all that, the doctor's bill for seventy pupils amounting to 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



4S3 



thirty-five shillings per year. The boys 
o'clock a. m., and to have for breakfast 
made in stirabout, and one pint of sweet 
was printed at the beginning of the ses- 
liungry to think of the sparseness of it. 
school, one man told me it had " gone 
it had " gone up." But all agreed in the 
suppose that school, like many other in- 
by too many rules. Templemoyle is in 
matter of history. Walking around the 
can look off into the far past, and see the 
back King James, making themselves 
their courage is handed down from age 
shanks, Alexander Irving, James Stewart, 
Coningham, William Cairns, Samuel 
man dies well when he dies in the defence 
country. You take a short run by cars 
place on earth — the Giant's Causeway, 
as by mathematical calculation. A 




were to rise at 5.30 
eleven ounces of oatmeal 
milk. The bill of fare 
sion, and it makes me 
When I asked about the 
down," and another that 
fact that it had gone. I 
stitutions, had been killed 
private hands, and a mere 
ramparts of the city you 
apprentice boys driving 
immortal, for the roll of 
to age — William Crook- 
Robert Morrison, John 
Harvey, and others. A 
of his home, city or 
and reach the strangest 
The rocks here are cut 
man is a fool who can 




STOKE POGI.S CHURCH AND CMUKCH-VAKl) Ol'' CRAY'S KLKGV. 



484 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



look at these rocks and not realize that the world had a design and a Designer. Was 
it nothing but chance that made them octagonal, hexagonal, pentagonal ? There are 
thirty-five thousand columns of rock more wonderful than all the sculptors and architects 
of the ages could have hewn them. Here are rocks called the Chimney Tops, which the 
Spanish Armada in the fog took for the towers of Dunluce Castle, and blazed away at, but 
got no answering cannonade save the echo of the everlasting hills. Here is what is 
called the " Giant's Organ," because the rocks resemble the pipes of that monarch of musical 
instruments. I would like to stand by this Giant's Organ during a thunderstorm and hear 
the elements play on it the Oratorio of the Creation. 

Here also is the " Giant's Amphitheatre," the benches of rock extending round in 




NORTH FRONT, WINDSOR CASTI<E. 

galleries above each other, suggesting a fit audience room for the gathering of the 
Judgment Day. 

We got into a boat and with six oarsmen rowed out on the sea and hence into two of 
the caverns where the ocean rolls with a grandeur indescribable. The roof of the Dun- 
kerry Cave is pictured, and frescoed, and emblazoned by the hand of God. It is sixty feet 
high above high-water mark. As the boat surges into this cavern you look round, wonder- 
ing whether there are enough oarsmen to manage it. A man fires a pistol that we may 
hear the report as loud in that cavern as the heaviest crash of an August thunderstorm. 
You swing round for a few moments in that strange temple and then come forth with an 
impression that you will carry forever. There can be no power in time or eternity to 
efface that stupendous memory. The rustic guides talk to you with the ease of a geologist 
about felspar and hornblende, and basalt, and trap rock. 

Before you die you must see the Giant's Causeway. You go to look at a celebrated 
lake, but you have seen other lakes. You go to look at a high mountain, but you have 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 485 

seen other mountains. You go to see a great city, but you have seen other cities. You go 
to see a famous tree, yet you have seen other trees. But there is nothing like the Giant's 
Causevv'ay. It stands alone and aside from all geological wonders. The painter tries to 
sketch it and gives it a ten-pin alley appearance, the ten-pins just set up. There is no 
canvas high enough, no pencil skillful enough, no genius mighty enough to adequately 
present this curiosity. Ireland might well have been built, if for nothing but to hold the 
Giant's Causeway. 

How do they account for this causeway ? It seems that a Scotch giant was in quarrel 
with an Irish giant, and the Scotch giant told the Irishman that he would come over and 
give him a severe trouncing if it were not for getting his feet wet in the sea. 

The Irish giant was spoiling for a fight, and so built a road across to Scotland. Then 
the Scotchman crossed over, and the Irishman punished him for his impudence with a 
shillalah. As time went by the High Road across the sea sank, leaving only the present 
remains called the Giant's Causeway. 

But instead of this tradition, which says the road was built to let two belligerents 
cross over and meet each other in combat, I think it was built for the purpose of allowing 
the human mind to cross over from earth to heaven. It lifts us among the sublimities. I 
imagine that this is the last pillar of the earth that will give way. After the roof of the 
world has fallen in, and the capitals of the mountains shall have crumbled, and the founda- 
tion of the earth has sunk, these gray columns shall run their grandeur across the desolation, 
and these organ pipes of basalt sound forth the dirge of a dead and departed world. 



CHAPTER XLVII. 



ON THE HOME-STRETCH. 

BIFTEEN hundred miles from Europe ; fifteen hundred miles from America. 
Steamer City of Paris^ of ten thousand five hundred tons. A company of passen- 
gers, intelligent and genial, and groups of female beauty, a very flower garden. 
Yet condensation of all discomforts — rough nearly all the way, making the nights 
almost sleepless and the days dismal. Yet I am " homeward bound." I have traveled on 
this journey around the world,' at least forty thousand miles, for it has not been a 
direct journey, but much of it zigzag, and up and down many countries. It has been 

arduous beyond 
description. 

Would I advise 
others to take it ? 
By no means, unless 
they have endur- 
ance and patience 
and courage well 
developed. No one 
can realize how big 
the world is nor 
how much energy 
it takes to circum- 
navigate it Then 
there are so many 
exposures that no 
one unless in estab- 
lished and robust 
health, ought ta 
undertake it. We 
crossed the tropics 
BAI.LIOI, coi.i,e:ge, oxford, ENGLAND. twicc and went 

from summer to winter and from winter back again to summer, and exchanged 
palm-leaf fans for overcoats, and went from ninety degrees heat to almost freezing 
point. We rode in cold cars without any stoves, and stayed in hotels where stoves 
had never been seen and fireplaces were unknown. Then there are all the perils 
of the sea, dangers of collision, and conflagration, and hurricane, and hidden rock. Then 
there are the possibilities of broken bridges, and misplaced switches, and mistakes of 
telegraphy during fourteen thousand miles of railroad travel. In India cholera was only 
three weeks ahead of us, and fevers were all around us. Change of water, or places where 
the drinking of water is suicide to a traveler. Fruits with germs of disease in them. 
Atmosphere surcharged with malaria. 

, (4S6) 




THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



487 



I am glad beyond expression that I took the journey, but no inducement except the 
discharge of plain duty could ever start me again on such a circumlocution. The opportu- 
nities of mental enlargement are infinite. Such a journey opens a thousand more doors 
of knowledge than can ever be entered. It reveals religions, and displays customs, and 
exposes superstitions, and makes in one's mind a map of nations that no books can so fully 
give. Go if you have health to stand it, and can put to practical use that which you 
acquire by the process. Do not undertake it for restoration of health, unless you want to 
help occupy some foreign cemetery. Do not undertake it with the idea of pleasure-, as 
when you go aboard a yacht, or pack your trunk for a summer watering-place, or call up 
the hounds for a deer hunt in the Adirondacks, lest you waste }Our time, and money, and 




BANK OF ENGLAND, LONDON. 

patience on a planetary failure. To cross the Pacific, and Southern, and Indian, and 
Bengal, and Arabian, and Red, and Mediterranean, and Atlantic seas is a work so great 
that it ought to be well understood before starting. 

The work is done, and I have an emotion of gratitude that cannot be expressed by any 
vocabulary. The ocean is a great liar. It says : " Come aboard the ship. I will rock you 
in what the poet appropriately called the ' cradle of the deep.' I will pass you to other 
continents on pavements of sapphire. Did you ever see a richer blue than that with which 
I dj'e my depths ? Did you ever see a richer lace than that into which I weave my billows ? 
Did you ever see a gayer plume than the feathery foam with which I adorn my crests ? Did 
you ever hear a more devotional psalm than that which I chant for the voyagers? Step 
aboard. I am mild and beautiful and trustwortliy. Such beautiful sea charts in the 



4S8 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



captain's room ! Such exquisite compass to tell the ship's bearings ! Such dining-rooms of 
plush, and upholstery, and tables all aglitter with opulent cutlery and ruddy with fruits, 
and asmoke with the best food from land and sky and billow ! All aboard for Melbourne, or 
Calcutta, or Brindisi, or Liverpool ! " But twenty-four hours afloat, and her smiles are 
exchanged for frowns, and her dining-rooms are occupied by a few forlorn passengers 
holding on to plates to keep them from capsizing, and your trunks go skating up and down 
the room and you wish yourself ashore, and pronounce the ocean a liar. It would like to 
scare, to starve, to drown you. The greatest fun the ocean ever has is a shipwreck. But 
neither the voyage by sea nor the journey by land did me any damage. Not one accident in 
all the wa}' by land or sea. Not a wound so much as the scratch of a pin. 

I was impressed with two things on the journey. One was, how big the world is. 
Such wildernesses of water, so that I have been about seventy days on the sea ! Such 




CRYSTAI, PAI,ACE, SYDENHAM. 

infinitude of land, occupied and unoccupied ! A vast world. An astronomical immensitv. 
If there had been no other world it would have done quite well for a Universe. 

My other impression was, how small the world is. Around it so soon. The distances 
all the time abbreviated by fleeter rail trains and swifter steamships. And in all the journey 
I have not been a moment beyond the bounds of my parish. In all the cities, towns, 
neighborhoods, and railroad stations, old friends, though we had never before met. Men 
and women who said that I had more to do with their moral and spiritual destiny than I 
could ever imagine. I thought that I had found one exception at a railroad station in India 
where we stopped. But as I got out of the carriage a man stepped up and called me by 



THE WORLD AS vSEEN TO-DAY. 



489 



name, saying that he hoped he was not mistaken, and after I had assured him I was the 
man he spoke of, he said : " Now I can die in peace ; I have seen yon. Many years ago at 
Madras I first met your gospel message." All of which makes me want to get back again 
into my own study at home and get to making sermons. 

I shall soon be looking for land. Yea, as I resume writing this chapter, the American 
shore appears. " Now that you have seen so many countries, what do you consider the 
best place to live in ? " I answer with all the emphasis that I can command : " The United 
States of America." Had it not been so there would have been three hundred thousand 
Americans moving into Europe instead of three hundred thousand Europeans moving into 
America. 

Have you realized our- superior blessings atmospheric? Have you thought of the fact 
that the most of the millions of the human race are in climates frigid or torrid or horrid ? 




LAW COURTS, LONDON. 

Take up the map of the world and thank God that you are so far off from Arctic icebergs 
on the one side and seven-feet-long cobras on the other. For what multitudes of the human 
race life is an Arctic expedition ! Underground huts. Immeasurable barrenness. Life a 
prolonged shiver. Our front-door steps on a January night genial compared with their 
climate. Ask some of the Arctic explorers about the luxuries of life around the North 
Pole. Instead of killing so many brave men in Polar expeditions, we liad better send 
messengers to persuade tho.se pale inhabitants of polar climes to say good-bye to the eternal 
snows and abandon those realms of earth to the walrus and white bear, and shut up those 
gates of crystal, and come down into a realm where the thermometer seldom drops below 



490 THE EARTH GIRDEED. 

zero. Oh the beauties of Baffin's Bay, only six weeks in the }-ear open ! What a delightful 
thing when in those Arctic regions they milk their cows, and milk only ice cream. Let 
all those who live between thirty and fifty degrees of north latitude thank God, and have 
sympathy for the vast populations of both hemispheres who freeze between sixty and eighty 
degrees of latitude. Then compare our atmosphere with the heated air infested with rep- 
tilian and insectile life in which most of the human race suffer. Think of India and China 
and Ethiopia. Travelers tell you of the delicious orange groves, but ask them about the 
centipedes. They tell of the odor of the forests, but ask them about the black flies. They 
tell you about the rich plumage of the birds, but ask them about the malarias. They tell 
you about the fine riders, but ask them about the Bedouins and bandits. They tell you 
about the broad piazzas, but ask them about the midnights with the thermometer at an 
insufferable one hundred and ten. Vast cities of the torrid clime without sewerage, without 
cleansing, packed, and piled up wretchedness and all discomfort. What beautiful hyenas ! 
What fascinating scorpions ! What sociable tarantulas ! What captivating lizards ! What 
wealth of bugs ! What an opportunity to study comparative anatomy and herpetology ! What 
a chance to look into the open countenance of the pleasing crocodile ! Hundreds of millions 
of people in such surroundings. I would rather live in one of our American cities in a house 
with two rooms than to live in the torrid lands and own all Mexico, all Brazil, all Hindo- 
stan, all Arabia, all China. In other words, I would rather live between thirty and fifty 
degrees of latitude and own nothing than to be between ten and thirty degrees of latitude. 
Thirty years of life in America, or a corresponding latitude, are worth more than eighty years 
of life anywhere else. We have the furs of the Arctic and the fruits of the Torrid with all 
the pleasurable respiration of the Temperate. God seems to say, " Come down North wind 
with a tonic, and come up South wind with a balm, and mix a healthful draught for the 
lungs of this nation ! " 

Again, there is not a land where wages and salaries are so large for the great masses 
of the people. In India four cents a day and find yourself is good wages. In Ireland, in 
some parts, eight cents a day for wages, in England, a dollar a day good wages — vast popu- 
lations not getting as much as that. In other lands fifty cents a day and twenty-five cents 
a day clear on down to starvation and squalor. An editor in England told me that his salary 
was seven hitndred and fifty dollars a year, and he seemed satisfied ! Look at the great 
populations coming out of the factories of other lands, and accompany them to their homes, 
and see what privation the hard-working classes on the other side the sea suffer. • 

The laboring classes in America are ten per cent better off than in any other country 
under the sun — twenty per cent, forty per cent, fifty per cent, seventy-five cent. The toilers 
with hand and foot have better homes and better furnished. I do not write an abstraction. 
I know what I have seen. The stone masons and carpenters and plumbers and mechanics 
and artisans of all styles in America have finer residences than the majority of professional 
men in Europe. You enter the laborer's house on our side the sea and you find upholstery 
and pictures and instruments of music. His children are educated at the best schools. 
His life is instired, so that in case of his sudden demise the family shall not be homeless. 
Let all American workmen know that while their wages may not be as high as they would 
like to have them, America is the paradise of industry'. 

Again, there is no land on the earth where the political condition is so satisfactory as in 
ours. Every three 3'ears in the State and every four years in the nation we clean house. 
After a vehement expression of the people at the ballot-box in the autumnal election, they 
all seem satisfied, and if they are not satisfied, at any rate they smile. 



-^^vi=^V/'^ 




DR. TAI.MACIC'S I'ARJiWKI.I, MKIHlNc; AT HVDK I'ARK. 



(49') 



492 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



An Englishman asked me in an English rail-train this qnestion : " How do 3'ou people 
stand it in America with a revolution every four years ? Wouldn't it be better for you, like 
us, to have a queen for a lifetime and everything settled?" England changes government 
just as certainly as we do. At some adverse vote in Parliament out goes Disraeli and in 
comes Gladstone, out goes Gladstone in comes Salisbury, out goes Salisbury and in comes 
Gladstone again, or Lord Rosebery, or out goes Roseberry and in comes Salisbury. 
Administrations change there, but not as advantageously as with us, for there 
they may change almost any day, while with us a party in power continues in power four 
years. 

It is said that in our country we have more political dishonesty than in any other land. 
The difference is that in our country almost every official has a chance to steal, while in 
ofher lands a few people absorb so much that the others have no chance at appropriation. 
The reason they do not steal is, they cannot get their hands on it ! The governments of 




CONWAY CASTLE, NORTH WALES, ONE Of THE NOBLEST CASTEIXATED STRUCTURES IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

Europe are so expensive that after the salaries of the royal families are paid there is not 
much left to misappropriate. 

The Emperor of Russia has a nice little salary of $8,310,000. The Emperor of Austria 
has a yearly salary of $4,000,000. Victoria, the Queen, has a salary of $2,200,000. The 
royal plate of St. James' Palace is worth $10,000,000. The Queen's hairdresser gets $10,000 
a year for combing the royal locks, while the most of us have to comb our hair at less than 
half that expense, if we have any to comb ! 

Over there, there is a host of attendants, all on salaries, some of them $5000 and 
$6000 a year. Master of Buck Hounds, $8500 a year. Grand Falconer, $6000 a year. 
(I translate pounds into dollars.) Gentlemen of the Wine and Beer Cellars, Controller of 
the Household, Groom of the Robes, Mistress of the Robes, Captain of Gold Stick, Lieuten- 
ant of Silver Stick, Clerk of the Powder Closet, Pages of the Back Stairs, Maids of Honor, 
Master of Horse, Chief Equerry, Equerries in Ordinary, Crown Equerry, Hereditary 
Grand Falconer, Vice Chamberlain, Clerk of the Kitchen, Master of Forks, Grooms in 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



493 



Waiting, Lords in Waiting, Grooms of the Great Chamber, Sergeant at Arms, Barge Master 
and Waterman, Eight Bedchamber Women, Eight Ladies of the Bedchamber, Ten Grooms 
of the Great Chain, and so on, and so on, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. 

All this is only a type of the fabulous expense of foreign governments. All this paid 
out of the sweat and the blood of the people. Are the people satisfied ? However much 




ST. JAMK.S P.M..\CK. I.ONIlON. 

the Germans like William, and the Spaniards like their young King, and England likes her 
splendid Queen, these .stupendous governmental expenses are built on a groan of dissatisfac- 
tion as wide as Europe. If it were left to the people of England, of Germany, of Austria, 
of Spain, of Russia, whether these expensive establishments should be kept up, do you doubt 
what the vote would be ? 



494 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



Now, is it not better that we be overtaxed and the snrplus be distributed all over the 
land among the lobby men, and that it go into the hands of hiindreds and thousands of 
people — is there not a better chance of its finally getting down into the hands of honest 
people, than if it were all built up, piled up, inside a garden or palace ? 

Again, the monopolistic oppression is less in America than anywhere else. The air is 
full of protest because great houses, great companies, great individuals are building such 
overtowering fortunes. Stephen Girard and John Jacob Astor, stared at in their time for 
their august for- tunes, would not now be pointed at in the streets of Phila- 
York as anything remarkable. These vast fortunes for 
pinchedness of want for others. A great protuberance on 
implies the illness of the whole body. These estates of dis- 
weaken all the body politic. But the evil is nothing with 
the monopolistic oppression abroad. Just look at their 
tablishments. Look at those vast cathedrals built at fabulous 
ported by great ecclesiastical machinery at vast expense, and 
audience room that would hold a thousand people, twenty 
gather for worship. The Pope's income is eight million 
drals of statuary and braided arch, and walls covered with 
Rubens and Raphael and Michael Angelo; against all the 
walls dashing seas of poverty and crime and filth and abom- 
, ination. Ireland to-day one vast monop- 



delphia or New 
some imply 
a man's hea 1 
proportioned size 
us compared with 
ecclesiastical es- 
expense and sup- 
sometimes in an 
or thirty people 
dollars. Cathe- 
masterpieces of 




olistic devastation. About forty-five mil- 
lions of people in Great Britain and yet all 
the soil owned by about thirty-two thou- 
sand. Statistics enough to shake the 
earth. Duke of Devonshire owning 
ninety-six thousand acres in Derby. Duke 
of Richmond owning three hundred thou- 
sand acres at Gordon Castle. Marquis of 
Breadalbane going on a journey of one hun- 
dred miles in a straight line, all on his own 
property. Duke of Sutherland has an estate 
as wide as Scotland, which dips into the sea. 
on both sides. Bad as we have it in 
America, it is a thousand times worse there. 
Beside that, if in America a few 
forti:nes overshadow all others, we must 
remember there is a vast throng of other 
people being enriched, and this fact shows the thriftiness of the country. It is estimated 
that there are over six thousand millionaires in the United States. In addition to this, 
you must remember that there are successes on less extended scales. Tens of thousands 
of people worth five hundred thousand dollars ; scores of thousands worth one hundred 
thousand dollars each. Yea, the majority of the people of the United States are on their 
way to fortunes. They will either be rich themselves or their children will be rich. 

If I should leave to some men the question : " Will you have a fortune and your 
children struggle on through their lives in the struggle you have had to make — will you 
have the fortune, or would you rather that they should have the fortune ?" Scores of mea 



nelson's monument, TRAFALGER square, LONDON. 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



495 



■would say : " I am willing to fight this battle all the way through and give ui)' children a 
chance; I don't care so much about myself; it's only for ten or twenty years, anyhow; give 
my children a chance." If anything stirs my admiration it is to see a man without any 
education himself sending his sons to college, and without any opportunity for luxury 
himself, resolved that though he shall have it hai"d all the days of his life, his children 
shall have a good start. And I tell you, although some of our people may have great com- 
mercial struggle, there is going to be a great opening for their sons and daughters as they 
come on to take their places in society. Beside that, the domains of Europe and Asia are 




iM IN WHICH shaki:.si'i-;aki-; was hi.>un. 



already full. Every place occupied, unless it be desert or volcano or condemned barren- 
ness, while in America we have plenty of room, and the resources are only just opening. 
In other lands, if fortunes fatten, they must fatten on others ; but with us they can fatten 
out of illimitable prairies and out of inexhaustible mines. 

We ha\-e only just begun to set the Thanksgiving table in our country. Wc have just 
put on one silver fork, and one salt cellar, and one loaf of bread, and one smoking platter. 
Wait until the fruits come in from all the orchards, and the meats from all the markets, 
and the vegetables from all the gardens, and the silver from all llic mines, and tjic dinner 



496 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

bell rings, saying : " Come and dine. Come all the people from between the two oceans. 
Come from between the Thousand Isles and the Gulf of Mexico. Come and dine !" 

Again ! our nation is more fully at peace than any other. At least fifteen million of 
men belong to the standing armies of Europe to-day. Since we had our conflict, on the 
other side the sea"- they have had Zulu war, Afghan war, Eg\ptian war, Russo-Turkish 
war, German-French war, Japan-Chinese war. No certainty about the future. All the 
governments of Europe watching each other, lest one of them get too much advantage. 
Diplomacy all the time nervously at work. Four nations watching the Suez Canal as 
carefully as four cats could watch one rat. 

In order to keep peace, intermarriages of royal families ; some bright princess compelled 
to marry some disagreeable foreign dignitary in order to keep the balance of political power 
in Europe, the illy matched pair fighting out on a small scale that which would have been 
an international contest, sometimes the husband holding the balance of power, sometimes 
the wife holding the balance of power. One unwise stroke of Gladstone's pen after Garnet 
Wolseley had captured Tel-el-kebir, and all Europe would have been one battlefield. 
Crowded cities, crowded governments, crowded learned institutions, crowded great cities 
close by each other. 

You get in the cars in America, and you ride one hundred or one hundred and 
fifty miles ; then you come to a great city, as Philadelphia, as Albany, as Boston. 
I got on the cars at Manchester, and closed my eyes for a long sleep before I got to 
lyiverpool. In forty minutes I was aroused out of sleep by some one saying, " We are here ; 
this is Liverpool." The cities crowded. The populations crowded, packed in between the 
Pyrennes and the Alps, packed in between the English Channel and the Adriatic, so 
closely they cannot move without treading either on each other's heels or toes. Sceptres 
clashing ; chariot wheels colliding. The nations of Asia and Europe this moment 
wondering what next. But on our continent we have plenty of room and nobody to fight. 
Eight million square miles in North America and all but one-seventh capable of rich culti- 
vation, implying what fertility and what commerce ! Four great basins pouring their 
waters into the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and "Gulf of Mexico. Shore line of twenty-nine 
thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine miles. The one State of Texas with more square 
miles than all France, than all German)-. 

That our continent might have plenty of elbow room and not be jostled by the effete 
governments of Europe, God sank to the depths of the sea a whole continent that once 
ran from off the coast of Europe to the coast of America — the continent of Atlantis — which 
allowed the human race to pass from Europe to America on foot, with little or no shipping ; 
that continent dimly described in history, but the existence of which has been proved by 
archaeological evidences innumerable ; that whole continent sunken so that a fleet of Ger- 
man, British and American vessels had to take deep sea soundings to touch the top of it ; 
that highway from Eirrope to America entirely removed so that for the most part only the 
earnest and the persevering and the brave could reach America and that through long sea 
voyage. 

Governments on the southern tip of this continent are gradually coming to the time 
when they will beg for annexation. On the other hand beautiful and hospitable Canada, 
the vast majorit}' of the people there are more republican than monarchial in their feelings, 
and the chief difference between them and us is that they live on one side of the St. Law- 
rence and we on the other. The day will come when Canada will be found waiting for our 
government to propose marriage, and when we do so, she will look down and blush, and. 



498 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



thinking of her allegiance across the sea, will say : " Ask mother." Peace all over the 
continent, and nothing to fight about. What a pity that slavery is gone ! ' While that lasted 
we had something over which the orators could develop their muscles of vituperation and 
calumny. 

We are so hardly put to it for military demonstration that guns and swords and cannon 
were called out a few years ago to celebrate the bi-centennial of William Penn, the peaceful 
Quaker for whom a gun would never have been of any use except to hang his broad-brim 
hat on. Oh, what shall we do for a fight ? Will not somebody strike us ? We cannot 
draw swords on the subject of civil service reform, or free trade, or " comers " in wheat. 
Our ships of war are cruising around the ocean hoping for something interesting to turn up. 
Sumter and Moultrie and Pulaski and Fortress Monroe have not spoken in twenty-nine 




SPTJRGEON'S TABERNACLE. 

years. Gunpowder out of fashion, and not even allowed the juvenile population on Fourth 
of July. Fire crackers a sin. 

America is struck through and through with peace. There is hardly a Northern 
city where there are not Confederate generals in its law offices or commercial establishments 
or insurance companies. There you sit side by side — you who wore the blue and you who 
wore the gra}' — you who kindled fires on the opposite side of the Potomac in 
the winter of 1862 — you who followed Stonewall Jackson toward the North and you 
who followed General Sherman toward the South. Why are you not breaking each other's 
heads ? 

Ah ! you have irreparably mixed up your politics. The Northern man married a 
Southern wife, and the Southern man married a Northern wife, and your children are half 
Mississippian and half New Englander, and to make another division between the North 
and the South possible you would have to do with your child as Solomon proposed with the 
child brought before him in judgment ; divide it with the sword, giving half to the North 



THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 



499 



and half to the South. No ! there is nothing so hard to split as a cradle. Intermarriage 
will go on and consanguineal ties will be multiplied, and the question for generations to 
come will be, how we people in America got into such an awful wrangle and went to 
digging such an awful grave trench. 

Again ! we have a better climate than in any other nation. We do not suffer from 
anything like the Scotch mist or the English fogs or from anything like the Russian ice 
blast or from the awful typhus of Southern Europe or the Asiatic cholera. Epidemics in 
America are exceptional — very exceptional. Plenty of wood and coal to make a roaring 
fire in winter time. Easy access to sea beach or mountain-top when the ardors of summer 
come down. Michigan wheat for the bread, Long Island corn for the meal, New Jersey 
pumpkins for the pies, Carolina rice for the queen of puddings, prairie fowl from Illinois, 
fish from the Hudson and the James, hickory and hazel and walnuts from all our woods, 



w^ 







NEW YORK BAY, CASTLE GARDEN AND STATUE OF LIBERTY. 

Louisiana sugar to sweeten our beverages, Georgia cotton to keep us warm, oats for the 
horses, carrots for the cattle, and oleomargarine butter for the hogs ! In our land all products 
and all climates that you may desire. 

Are your nerves weak and in need of bracing up? Go North. Is your throat delicate 
and in need of balmy airs ? Go vSouth. Do you feel crowded and want more room ? Go 
West. Almost anything you want you can have. Plenty to eat, plenty to wear, plentv to 
read. 

Yes! yes! I have seen the world for myself, and I come home more in love with 
America than ever before. 

What a delightful time this noon to be sailing up the New York Harbor ! The fact is, 
I am afraid of the sea. Few people confess it, but I must confess it. With few exceptions 
it has treated me well. But this Atlantic voyage is one of the exceptions. So also was the 
shaking up we got the first night out from San Francisco, and the last night before reaching 



500 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 

New Zealand, and the voyage from there to Australia. I admire the sea when I stand on 
shore and look at it, but when sailing upon it and watching some of its paroxysms of rage, 
its billows seem like so many raving monsters ready to devour. At Calcutta, at the Zoolog- 
ical Garden, I saw the Bengal tigers and heard them growl, and saw them paw the iron bars 
in effort to get at us. Yet they were caged, and there was no danger. But the ocean is one 
hundred thousand Bengal tigers, and they run their paws up the side of the ship and say : 
'■'■ Why take those people into New York Harbor ? Give them to us ! You must think that 
ocean billows are never hungry ! How we would like with our long tongues to lick their 
blood ! Give us that ocean steamer ! " Yes, I am afraid of the ocean. Were it not for 
the entertaining sights on the other side of the sea and the enlargement foreign travel 
gives to the traveler, I would never step on board a ship. The only part of an ocean 
voyage I enjoy is going ashore, and I shall soon have that opportunity. Yet this I write 
on board as grand a steamer as ever with its screw bored its way through the Atlantic ; 
a steamer commanded by Captain Watkins, than whom no more competent or affable officer 
ever trod the ship's bridge in a cyclone ; a steamer in which all the appointments are so com- 
plete that I cannot think of a possible improvement. The Bible says a thing which exactly 
suits me where it prophesies the arrival of a time when " there shall be no more sea." 
I should like to preach its funeral sermon, but it will take a big cemetery to hold the 
■dead Atlantic, and the dead Pacific, and the dead Mediterranean, and the dead Indian 
Ocean. 

Through the narrows and into New York Harbor. Sandy Hook even looks beautiful : 
I think I must be a poor sailor. Statue of Liberty still holding its torch on one side. 
Staten Island with its wealth of comfortable homes on the other. Fort lyafayette and Fort 
Hamilton with their dogs of war chained and their lions of terror sound asleep on their iron 
paws. New Jersey over there, the place of my cradle. Long Island over there, the place 
of my grave. Between the shores the great sapphire pathway of nations. The mammoth ship 
on which we sail but one of whole fleets of vessels which, bearing all flags from all 
nations, have floated here. What innumerable keels, wooden, or iron, or steel, have plowed 
here for what harvests of commercial ingathering ! What foreign " men-of-war " in Revolu- 
tionary times passing up to sink at Hell Gate ! Up this bay have come what patriots from 
all lands ; what escaped captives of all tyrannies ; what friends and coadjutors from all 
zones — Lafayette, Kosciusko and Kossuth ! Mighty New York Harbor ! Every curve of 
its shores ; every shimmer of its waves ; every toss of crystalline brightness from the cut- 
water of its shipping, suggesting the prosperities of the- past and the greater prosperities of 
the future. Glorious New York Harbor ! This is the thirteenth time I have entered it 
from transatlantic voyage, but it never looked so inviting as to-day ; perhaps because I am 
home-sick after the longest absence of a lifetime. But it does seem as if the banks were 
more graceful, and as if the simlight had threads more golden, and as if the breath of the 
orchards, and gardens, and fields were more aromatic, and as if the clouds now hovering 
had charioteers more richly attired to guide them. Yes, there are the spires of the old 
churches where many generations have worshiped. There are the storehouses where the 
merchants of other days bartered. There are the streets along which the beaux and belles 
of this century, when it was young, walked, and smiled, and coquetted. And there is the 
Brooklyn Bridge throwing its arm from city to city as sister links her arm in the arm of 
sister. Lovely New York Harbor ! Happy be all the hearts that sail over it ! Welcome 
all the be-stormed crafts that seek its shelter ! Blown to atoms be all the foreign wai 
shipping that shall put its accursed prows into its now peaceful waters ! 




(50I) 



502 



THE EARTH GIRDLED. 



And now my long journey is ended. I have girdled the earth with travel, and am at 
the front steps down which I came on the night of May fourteenth, to start on my journey 
around the world. How different the emotions with which I ascend them from the emotions 
with which T descended them. Then the journey was before me ; now the journey is 
behind me. Then it was good-bye ; now it is welcome. The door is opened, and I pass 
in and am at home, the brightest place on earth. During my journey I have been in larger 
dwellings, and amid costlier tapestry, and amid more expensive pictures, and under grander 
arches, but in my memory they all fall into insignificance compared with this abode. Every 
room associated with some scene of domestic life. This one a birthplace ; that one a bridal 
arch ; another a death chamber ; and for seventeen years associated with stirring experiences 




SI.EEPING ROOM AT DR. TAI.MAGE S HOME. 



in which sunshine and shadows have chased each other. Cowper sang the praises of the 
sofa ; if I were a poet I would put into rhythm these chairs, and tables, and family pictures. 
But as I enter after long sojourn they all chime their own rhythm ; they all ring their own 
cantos ; they all speak their own salutations. Home ! It is a charmed word. Through 
that one syllable thrill untold melodies, the laughter of children, the sound of well-known 
foot-stejjs, and the voices of undying affection. Home ! I hear in that word the ripple of 
meadow brooks in which knee-deep we waded, the lowing of cattle coming up from the 
pasture, the sharp hiss of the scythe amid thick grass, the creaking of the hay rack where 
•we trampled down the load. Home ! Upon that word there drop the sunshine of 



THE WORLD AvS SEEN TO-DAY. 503 

boj'hood, and the shadow of tender sorrows and the reflection of ten thousand fond memories. 
Home ! When I see it in book or newspaper, that word seems to rise and sparkle and 
leap and thrill and whisper and chant and pray and weep. It glitters like a shield. It 
springs up like a fountain. It trills like a song. It twinkles like a star. It leaps like a 
flame. It glows like a sunset. It sings like an angel. And if some lexicographer, urged 
on by a spirit from beneath, should seek to cast forth that word from the language, the 
children would come forth and hide it under garlands of wild flowers, and the wealthy 
would come forth to cover it up with their diamonds and pearls ; and kings would hide it 
under their crowns, and after Herod had hunted its life from Bethlehem to Egypt, and 
utterly given up the search, some bright warm day it would flash from among the gems, and 
breathe from among the flowers, and toss from among the coronets, and the world would 
read it bright, and fair, and beautiful, and resonant as before, Home ! Home ! Home ! 




A BURMESE; BELLE. 

Burmah, like Siam, its close neighbor, is the land of the White Elephant and of other strange conceits in social customs as 
well as religion. The illustration above represents a young lady of the aristocracy, clothed iu the most costly and fashionable 
raimeni: of the period. A habit among these people, especially prevalent among rich ladies, is that of chewing the betel-nut, 
which colors the teeth a jet black, and a majority of them are also inveterate cigarette smokers. 



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